Chapter 10
Julian catches Eve up to speed. A press conference is held.
After a few hours, the supply room that Julian and Eve were hiding out in, was nice and toasty. For after Julian discovered Eve in there, he told her to hide, then banged on the solid, concrete door that imprisoned them. A guard appeared.
'This is a atrocious!' Julian ranted, 'I could freeze to death in here!'
'That's kind of the idea!' the guard snapped.
'Don't get uppity with me! DiMera may be a vicious criminal and a sometime murderer, but at heart, he's a kidnapper! He has no plans to kill me! He just wants to keep me here forever to suffer! Now get some heat in here right away!' Julian spat.
The guard rolled his eyes and pulled the door shut. Fifteen minutes later, a noise could be heard. Eve walked over to a vent and put her hands in front of it. She then looked up at Julian.
'Oh, Julian! You did it! We have heat!'
'Of course we do, my darling! Did you really think I would let us both freeze to death?'
Eve shook her head no, and he pulled her into an embrace. Her head rested on his shoulder for a short time, before she pulled away and looked at him.
'How are Evan and Erin?'
Julian touched her face.
'They're staying with Sheridan and Luis. They're fine.'
'Sheridan and Luis? Why not Whitney and Fox?'
'Oh, because Fox is in...' Julian didn't know if he should tell her all that had happened during her absence. He could tell Eve was still stressed out about the avalanche and the animal she thought she saw(personally, Julian didn't really think his wife had really seen a wolf or any other four legged creature, but he played along as if he believed her!). Hearing about what Alicia had done, in her name, could just make things worse.
'Because Fox is in what, Julian?' Eve asked, eyeing him. She could tell Julian was thinking about lying to her about something. Things were bad, yes, but she needed to know everything.
Julian picked up one of her hands.
'Let's go sit on one of the crates over there. We need to talk.'
Eve said nothing, as she and Julian walked over to some wooden crates. They both hopped up onto them. Julian then held her hand again.
'Darling, it took me two days to figure out that you weren't you.'
Eve's eyes widened.
'Well, I don't suppose that's so bad. I could even understand if you might have slept with her...you didn't, did you?'
'Darling, that was what gave her away...and the fact that she quit your job at the hospital...'
'What?!'
'Well, Eve, I'm sure she wasn't a doctor! I mean once that became clear, her little scam would've been apparent! And, she was lousy with Evan and Erin.'
'If that heifer laid one hand on my babies...'
'No, no. I would never have let that 'heifer' do anything to our children. She didn't care enough about them to do anything. All she did was lay around and eat candy. That was when I first became suspicious.'
Eve nodded.
'But what about the two of you? Julian, I will understand if you accidentally had sexual relations with her. I mean, the point of the whole thing was for you to believe she was me.'
Julian took a deep breath.
'Eve, the woman hated me. She took to sleeping in another room and locking the door. I began to feel as if you had left my life when that happened, yet, I didn't know why, because it seemed as if you were still there. Then, one night, after she locked me out again, I used a spare key to sneak in.'
'You have a spare key?' Eve asked.
'Yes, to all rooms in the house. Darling, I just figured you were still angry with me over that Lexie/Liz nonsense. I couldn't understand why you would still be so angry for so long. I snuck into the room and yes, I did have every intention of making love to the woman that I thought was you. And then...' Julian turned away suddenly.
Eve turned his face back towards her.
'And then what?' she asked softly.
'Eve, her body was just so woefully inadequate, I knew she wasn't you the instant...'
Julian almost looked ashamed! It piqued Eve's curiosity.
'The instant what, Julian?'
'Never mind, darling! The point is, I figured out she was not you before anything could happen. The minute I realized she was an impostor, I pulled out a gun and threatened her with it.'
'A gun? Where did that come from?'
Julian looked somewhat shifty at that point. But Eve pressed it.
'I mean, I'm trying to understand this, Julian. You brought a gun to the bedroom, even though you said that you thought she was me when you entered it. Or, did you suspect that woman was not me when snuck in?'
'Alright, alright! I had a gun in the drawer of that particular room.'
'Julian! How many other rooms in the house have loaded guns in them?'
'Darling, I will clear them out as soon as we get home, I promise! But believe it or not, this story gets much worse, so I beg of you to be patient and just listen.'
Eve nodded reluctantly, although that loaded gun thing unnerved her. God! The idea of Evan or Erin finding one of those things...
But, she smiled weakly at Julian.
'Go on.' she said.
'Anyway, the crazy woman, who's name is Alicia...'
'Oh, I know that. Abe told me.' Eve said.
'Yes! That's another thing I wanted to discuss with you! What the hell was he doing here all of this time?'
Eve rolled her eyes.
'I like Abe, I always have. But when I got here, he told me that he had been here with Lexie this whole time, but had not been allowed to see her. So, all of the time Lexie was here, she did not know she was in the same building as her husband! I swear, Julian, Abe has just been so complacent! He talks about escaping from here, and getting back to Lexie and Theo, but I think he's given up.'
'Well, he's gone now.' Julian said, patting her hand.
'What do you mean?'
'I mean, that from what I understand, Abe Carver managed to escape...though, your sister and Tony exchanged conspiratorial glances behind Stefano's back, when this fact was brought up.'
'So, you don't think he escaped, so much as he was let go?' Eve asked. Her mind went back to a conversation she had had with Abe about Liz. She wondered if Abe agreed to do something distasteful for Liz, in order to gain his freedom. She shuddered.
'Oh, darling, you're still cold.' Julian noted, putting his arms around her.
'Julian?'
'Hmmm?'
'Tell me what's happened to Fox?' she asked.
Julian still held on to her.
'That Alicia woman burned down the mansion, after I confronted her with the gun.'
Eve gasped!
'Oh my God! Tell me everyone is alright?'
'Well, the servants, the babies and I, got out alright. But Fox tried to climb up one of the trellis's to save myself, and his little brother and sister. He fell.'
'Oh God, he's alright? Tell me he's alright?'
'Yes, though Whitney was beside herself. As so was I. I can still see the moment he fell...' Something in Julian's voice broke at that moment. To think that Fox would risk his life like that, showed that maybe, just maybe, he or Ivy, might have done something good in his upbringing. That and the fact that he married such a wonderful young woman, such as Whitney.
Eve pulled him to her. She held him close. Her hubby had been through the wringer as well.
'As long as he's alright, that's all that matters. Is Alicia is jail?' Eve asked, letting go of him.
'No, darling. Actually, there's much more to this than I originally had thought. Alicia was Chad's real mother.'
Eve nodded sadly.
'I know. Abe told me.'
'He knew her?'
'Yes, apparently she trained to be me, right here.'
'Eve, this Alicia woman, showed up the same day Lexie came back.'
Eve just stared at Julian. For she realized at that moment, that she had been so distraught at her own personal situation, that she hadn't thought about where Lexie was really.
'I knew Lexie had been let go...how did T.C. react? I mean, I'm sure he was happy to see her?'
Julian sighed.
'Eve, Lexie has as much as admitted to me, that she knew I had arranged her kidnapping with Stefano. She also admitted to knowing about the double. She knows you are here. She's angry about what I did and taking it out on you.'
Eve was stunned. She then slid off of the crate. Julian did likewise, staring at her back.
'Tell me what you're thinking?' he urged her.
Eve shrugged.
'I guess I don't remember any time in my life, that I've had so many people hating me, I guess.'
Julian decided not to tell her anymore. He needed to keep her spirits up, and think of a way out of here.
The lock on the concrete door clicked. Eve looked at Julian.
'Behind the crates, Eve!' he whispered loudly.
Eve scurried behind the crates, as a guard came in with a tray of food and a bottle of wine. Julian's eyes widened when he looked at the tray. There were two plates and two wine glasses. The guard set the tray down and left without comment. Julian's mouth dropped open, as the concrete door closed and locked.
Eve stood up and walked over to the tray. She then looked at Julian. Julian put an arm around her.
'I do believe our host knows that I'm not alone down here.' he said.
Eve looked up and around. She didn't see any cameras anywhere, though that didn't mean that none existed.
'What are we going to do?' Eve whispered.
'The next move, unfortunately, is Stefano's.' Julian said. 'But for now, let' s eat.'
Eve eyed the food.
'I am sick of apples, but I don't trust any food that comes courtesy of Stefano DiMera.' she said, moving away from the tray.
'Eve, you must eat. We both must keep up our strength if we're to escape.'
'How, Julian? He knows we're both down here! Soon he'll tell Tony...'
Eve stopped talking suddenly. Julian put a dinner biscuit in his mouth and looked at her.
'What is it?'
Eve looked at him. She then lowered her voice.
'The next time the guard comes back, I'm not hiding. And I am going to tell Tony that I will marry him.'
Julian spit the biscuit straight out of his mouth! It landed on top of a bag full of apples on the floor.
'Excuse me?'
'Julian, obviously, I'm not! But the way out of here is by tricking these people, somehow, someway. I don't think we can count on being rescued.'
'Well, no, God, look at what happened to Abe!'
Eve nodded.
'But the answer to that question is no.' Julian said.
'I didn't ask for your permission.'
'But I know you were going to.' Julian said with a devilish smile. 'Now, let's eat, and we'll come up with a better plan tomorrow.'
'Julian...'
'Besides,' he said slyly, 'no one's going to believe that you want to marry Tony anyway, after the show we're going to put on for whomever is watching, tonight.'
Eve smiled, as Julian emitted a tiger growl, then picked up another biscuit. He fed it to her.
****
Fox sat up, watching his TV. Things in Harmony just couldn't get much worse!
Abe Carver was alive. That was unbelievable! Fox sat and watched, as Abe held a press conference, with an overjoyed looking Lexie at his side. Fox raised a brow, as Lexie kissed his cheek and wiped her lipstick off of him. There were tears in her eyes.
Whitney came back in his room, looking positively livid! Fox turned off the TV quickly, but Whitney noticed.
'No, leave it on!'
'Whitney...'
'Leave it on!'
'Fine!' Fox said impatiently, knowing this display was just going to set his wife off all the more. Whitney stood staring at the TV, her arms crossed. She prayed her father wasn't watching this bull%$##!
'Hey! That's Marlena Black, isn't it?' Fox noted, pointing. Whitney squinted.
'Yeah, I wonder what she's doing here?'
Meanwhile, Abe cleared his throat before a bank of microphones, then proceeded to tell the horrifying details of his imprisonment by Stefano DiMera, how he was separated from his wife and Marlena, thus, they did not know he was anywhere nearby, much less alive. He then said that he managed to escape(but Fox noted, he didn't give much in the way of details on that one), but was heavy hearted, because he hadn't been able to take Mrs. Julian Crane with him. He then revealed that the last he saw of her, she had tried to escape on her own.
Whitney reached up and clicked off the TV. She then looked at Fox.
'Tell me you saw that bitch?'
Fox knew that Whitney was referring to Lexie.
'I did indeed, Whit. Look, I think she's just not thinking too clearly right now.'
'Oh, she knows exactly what she's doing, Fox! My father is crippled, from defending her lousy honor, I'm sure, and now she's going to just go running back to Abe Carver!'
There was a quick knock on the door. Teresa then entered. She looked at Whitney.
'Whitney, I don't know what to say. Mama and I came to see your father.'
'I just hope Lexie has the decency to dump him in person! It would just kill him if he learned about this on TV.' Whitney said sadly, shaking her head.
'Well, that's not all.' Teresa said, and nodded to Fox. Fox took his remote and turned on the TV. Marlena was now speaking.
'And the woman that arranged for me to be kidnapped, is from your very own hometown of Harmony here...Rebecca Hotckiss!'
'What proof do you have of this, Mrs. Black?' a reporter from the Harmony News asked.
'Because the woman tricked me to her office the night I was kidnapped. I found her...and Stefano DiMera, waiting for me. It was clear they knew one another!'
'Isn't Rebecca Hotckiss involved with your husband, John Black?' another reporter asked.
Marlena practically hissed!
'Yes, I found them in a compromising position, on my first day back! I have been to the authorities, and have no doubt whatsoever, that when this investigation is over, Rebecca Hotchkiss, and others, will be doing prison time!'
Fox turned off the TV. Whitney and Teresa looked at him.
'Why did you turn that off?' Teresa asked.
'Because it sounded like a load of crap!' Fox snapped. 'Why would Rebecca be in cahoots with Stefano DiMera?'
'Oh, Fox, you should have seen her on that island we were kidnapped to! Rebecca was all over John Black! With Marlena out of the way, she could get her hooks into him. I pray she goes to prison! I pray I get to testify against her!'
Whitney smiled at her friend's misplaced enthusiasm.
'I doubt Marlena Black would lie. It does sound like Rebecca could be in some trouble.' Whitney admitted.
Fox looked away. If Rebecca was in trouble, then so was his father!
'What, Fox?'
Fox hadn't realized Whitney had been looking at him. He smiled weakly at her.
'Nothing, though, there is something else I want to discuss with you later.'
Whitney nodded and smiled. She and Teresa then began conversing, leaving Fox to his own thoughts. For what he wanted to talk about, what his mother...and the prospect of her moving in with them.
****
T.C. lay flat on his back. The TV was on in his room. Tears rolled down his cheeks. For while he could not see the television from his position, he could hear Abe's voice. He knew Lexie was standing by his side.
It was probably for the best. He didn't know if he would ever be able to walk again anyway. He would've never been able to be the type of husband Lexie needed. Or a good father to Theo.
He suddenly burst into sobs.
****
Stefano watched Julian and Eve in his camera room. He leaned back in his chair and smiled.
He had had it with Tony's obsession with this woman. He had also had his fill of the Cranes.
Julian had been wrong about him. Yes, while he primarily kidnapped people, he was not hesitant in his slow, torturous murdering methods, either.
Stefano leaned forward again. He then picked up a phone. For, Eve had not been wrong about the yellow eyes that she had seen on this lovely mountain. They belonged to an experiment gone awry. One that now lived on this isolated part of the mountain.
Someone picked up on the other end. He was going to let his two prisoners go, into the wild. They would never make it. Tony thought Eve was dead anyway. He would never larn of her true fate.
'Release the prisoners.' he said into the phone. He then hung up, his thoughts moving from Julian and Eve, to his and Liz's impending child. Stefano smiled.
Julian catches Eve up to speed. A press conference is held.
After a few hours, the supply room that Julian and Eve were hiding out in, was nice and toasty. For after Julian discovered Eve in there, he told her to hide, then banged on the solid, concrete door that imprisoned them. A guard appeared.
'This is a atrocious!' Julian ranted, 'I could freeze to death in here!'
'That's kind of the idea!' the guard snapped.
'Don't get uppity with me! DiMera may be a vicious criminal and a sometime murderer, but at heart, he's a kidnapper! He has no plans to kill me! He just wants to keep me here forever to suffer! Now get some heat in here right away!' Julian spat.
The guard rolled his eyes and pulled the door shut. Fifteen minutes later, a noise could be heard. Eve walked over to a vent and put her hands in front of it. She then looked up at Julian.
'Oh, Julian! You did it! We have heat!'
'Of course we do, my darling! Did you really think I would let us both freeze to death?'
Eve shook her head no, and he pulled her into an embrace. Her head rested on his shoulder for a short time, before she pulled away and looked at him.
'How are Evan and Erin?'
Julian touched her face.
'They're staying with Sheridan and Luis. They're fine.'
'Sheridan and Luis? Why not Whitney and Fox?'
'Oh, because Fox is in...' Julian didn't know if he should tell her all that had happened during her absence. He could tell Eve was still stressed out about the avalanche and the animal she thought she saw(personally, Julian didn't really think his wife had really seen a wolf or any other four legged creature, but he played along as if he believed her!). Hearing about what Alicia had done, in her name, could just make things worse.
'Because Fox is in what, Julian?' Eve asked, eyeing him. She could tell Julian was thinking about lying to her about something. Things were bad, yes, but she needed to know everything.
Julian picked up one of her hands.
'Let's go sit on one of the crates over there. We need to talk.'
Eve said nothing, as she and Julian walked over to some wooden crates. They both hopped up onto them. Julian then held her hand again.
'Darling, it took me two days to figure out that you weren't you.'
Eve's eyes widened.
'Well, I don't suppose that's so bad. I could even understand if you might have slept with her...you didn't, did you?'
'Darling, that was what gave her away...and the fact that she quit your job at the hospital...'
'What?!'
'Well, Eve, I'm sure she wasn't a doctor! I mean once that became clear, her little scam would've been apparent! And, she was lousy with Evan and Erin.'
'If that heifer laid one hand on my babies...'
'No, no. I would never have let that 'heifer' do anything to our children. She didn't care enough about them to do anything. All she did was lay around and eat candy. That was when I first became suspicious.'
Eve nodded.
'But what about the two of you? Julian, I will understand if you accidentally had sexual relations with her. I mean, the point of the whole thing was for you to believe she was me.'
Julian took a deep breath.
'Eve, the woman hated me. She took to sleeping in another room and locking the door. I began to feel as if you had left my life when that happened, yet, I didn't know why, because it seemed as if you were still there. Then, one night, after she locked me out again, I used a spare key to sneak in.'
'You have a spare key?' Eve asked.
'Yes, to all rooms in the house. Darling, I just figured you were still angry with me over that Lexie/Liz nonsense. I couldn't understand why you would still be so angry for so long. I snuck into the room and yes, I did have every intention of making love to the woman that I thought was you. And then...' Julian turned away suddenly.
Eve turned his face back towards her.
'And then what?' she asked softly.
'Eve, her body was just so woefully inadequate, I knew she wasn't you the instant...'
Julian almost looked ashamed! It piqued Eve's curiosity.
'The instant what, Julian?'
'Never mind, darling! The point is, I figured out she was not you before anything could happen. The minute I realized she was an impostor, I pulled out a gun and threatened her with it.'
'A gun? Where did that come from?'
Julian looked somewhat shifty at that point. But Eve pressed it.
'I mean, I'm trying to understand this, Julian. You brought a gun to the bedroom, even though you said that you thought she was me when you entered it. Or, did you suspect that woman was not me when snuck in?'
'Alright, alright! I had a gun in the drawer of that particular room.'
'Julian! How many other rooms in the house have loaded guns in them?'
'Darling, I will clear them out as soon as we get home, I promise! But believe it or not, this story gets much worse, so I beg of you to be patient and just listen.'
Eve nodded reluctantly, although that loaded gun thing unnerved her. God! The idea of Evan or Erin finding one of those things...
But, she smiled weakly at Julian.
'Go on.' she said.
'Anyway, the crazy woman, who's name is Alicia...'
'Oh, I know that. Abe told me.' Eve said.
'Yes! That's another thing I wanted to discuss with you! What the hell was he doing here all of this time?'
Eve rolled her eyes.
'I like Abe, I always have. But when I got here, he told me that he had been here with Lexie this whole time, but had not been allowed to see her. So, all of the time Lexie was here, she did not know she was in the same building as her husband! I swear, Julian, Abe has just been so complacent! He talks about escaping from here, and getting back to Lexie and Theo, but I think he's given up.'
'Well, he's gone now.' Julian said, patting her hand.
'What do you mean?'
'I mean, that from what I understand, Abe Carver managed to escape...though, your sister and Tony exchanged conspiratorial glances behind Stefano's back, when this fact was brought up.'
'So, you don't think he escaped, so much as he was let go?' Eve asked. Her mind went back to a conversation she had had with Abe about Liz. She wondered if Abe agreed to do something distasteful for Liz, in order to gain his freedom. She shuddered.
'Oh, darling, you're still cold.' Julian noted, putting his arms around her.
'Julian?'
'Hmmm?'
'Tell me what's happened to Fox?' she asked.
Julian still held on to her.
'That Alicia woman burned down the mansion, after I confronted her with the gun.'
Eve gasped!
'Oh my God! Tell me everyone is alright?'
'Well, the servants, the babies and I, got out alright. But Fox tried to climb up one of the trellis's to save myself, and his little brother and sister. He fell.'
'Oh God, he's alright? Tell me he's alright?'
'Yes, though Whitney was beside herself. As so was I. I can still see the moment he fell...' Something in Julian's voice broke at that moment. To think that Fox would risk his life like that, showed that maybe, just maybe, he or Ivy, might have done something good in his upbringing. That and the fact that he married such a wonderful young woman, such as Whitney.
Eve pulled him to her. She held him close. Her hubby had been through the wringer as well.
'As long as he's alright, that's all that matters. Is Alicia is jail?' Eve asked, letting go of him.
'No, darling. Actually, there's much more to this than I originally had thought. Alicia was Chad's real mother.'
Eve nodded sadly.
'I know. Abe told me.'
'He knew her?'
'Yes, apparently she trained to be me, right here.'
'Eve, this Alicia woman, showed up the same day Lexie came back.'
Eve just stared at Julian. For she realized at that moment, that she had been so distraught at her own personal situation, that she hadn't thought about where Lexie was really.
'I knew Lexie had been let go...how did T.C. react? I mean, I'm sure he was happy to see her?'
Julian sighed.
'Eve, Lexie has as much as admitted to me, that she knew I had arranged her kidnapping with Stefano. She also admitted to knowing about the double. She knows you are here. She's angry about what I did and taking it out on you.'
Eve was stunned. She then slid off of the crate. Julian did likewise, staring at her back.
'Tell me what you're thinking?' he urged her.
Eve shrugged.
'I guess I don't remember any time in my life, that I've had so many people hating me, I guess.'
Julian decided not to tell her anymore. He needed to keep her spirits up, and think of a way out of here.
The lock on the concrete door clicked. Eve looked at Julian.
'Behind the crates, Eve!' he whispered loudly.
Eve scurried behind the crates, as a guard came in with a tray of food and a bottle of wine. Julian's eyes widened when he looked at the tray. There were two plates and two wine glasses. The guard set the tray down and left without comment. Julian's mouth dropped open, as the concrete door closed and locked.
Eve stood up and walked over to the tray. She then looked at Julian. Julian put an arm around her.
'I do believe our host knows that I'm not alone down here.' he said.
Eve looked up and around. She didn't see any cameras anywhere, though that didn't mean that none existed.
'What are we going to do?' Eve whispered.
'The next move, unfortunately, is Stefano's.' Julian said. 'But for now, let' s eat.'
Eve eyed the food.
'I am sick of apples, but I don't trust any food that comes courtesy of Stefano DiMera.' she said, moving away from the tray.
'Eve, you must eat. We both must keep up our strength if we're to escape.'
'How, Julian? He knows we're both down here! Soon he'll tell Tony...'
Eve stopped talking suddenly. Julian put a dinner biscuit in his mouth and looked at her.
'What is it?'
Eve looked at him. She then lowered her voice.
'The next time the guard comes back, I'm not hiding. And I am going to tell Tony that I will marry him.'
Julian spit the biscuit straight out of his mouth! It landed on top of a bag full of apples on the floor.
'Excuse me?'
'Julian, obviously, I'm not! But the way out of here is by tricking these people, somehow, someway. I don't think we can count on being rescued.'
'Well, no, God, look at what happened to Abe!'
Eve nodded.
'But the answer to that question is no.' Julian said.
'I didn't ask for your permission.'
'But I know you were going to.' Julian said with a devilish smile. 'Now, let's eat, and we'll come up with a better plan tomorrow.'
'Julian...'
'Besides,' he said slyly, 'no one's going to believe that you want to marry Tony anyway, after the show we're going to put on for whomever is watching, tonight.'
Eve smiled, as Julian emitted a tiger growl, then picked up another biscuit. He fed it to her.
****
Fox sat up, watching his TV. Things in Harmony just couldn't get much worse!
Abe Carver was alive. That was unbelievable! Fox sat and watched, as Abe held a press conference, with an overjoyed looking Lexie at his side. Fox raised a brow, as Lexie kissed his cheek and wiped her lipstick off of him. There were tears in her eyes.
Whitney came back in his room, looking positively livid! Fox turned off the TV quickly, but Whitney noticed.
'No, leave it on!'
'Whitney...'
'Leave it on!'
'Fine!' Fox said impatiently, knowing this display was just going to set his wife off all the more. Whitney stood staring at the TV, her arms crossed. She prayed her father wasn't watching this bull%$##!
'Hey! That's Marlena Black, isn't it?' Fox noted, pointing. Whitney squinted.
'Yeah, I wonder what she's doing here?'
Meanwhile, Abe cleared his throat before a bank of microphones, then proceeded to tell the horrifying details of his imprisonment by Stefano DiMera, how he was separated from his wife and Marlena, thus, they did not know he was anywhere nearby, much less alive. He then said that he managed to escape(but Fox noted, he didn't give much in the way of details on that one), but was heavy hearted, because he hadn't been able to take Mrs. Julian Crane with him. He then revealed that the last he saw of her, she had tried to escape on her own.
Whitney reached up and clicked off the TV. She then looked at Fox.
'Tell me you saw that bitch?'
Fox knew that Whitney was referring to Lexie.
'I did indeed, Whit. Look, I think she's just not thinking too clearly right now.'
'Oh, she knows exactly what she's doing, Fox! My father is crippled, from defending her lousy honor, I'm sure, and now she's going to just go running back to Abe Carver!'
There was a quick knock on the door. Teresa then entered. She looked at Whitney.
'Whitney, I don't know what to say. Mama and I came to see your father.'
'I just hope Lexie has the decency to dump him in person! It would just kill him if he learned about this on TV.' Whitney said sadly, shaking her head.
'Well, that's not all.' Teresa said, and nodded to Fox. Fox took his remote and turned on the TV. Marlena was now speaking.
'And the woman that arranged for me to be kidnapped, is from your very own hometown of Harmony here...Rebecca Hotckiss!'
'What proof do you have of this, Mrs. Black?' a reporter from the Harmony News asked.
'Because the woman tricked me to her office the night I was kidnapped. I found her...and Stefano DiMera, waiting for me. It was clear they knew one another!'
'Isn't Rebecca Hotckiss involved with your husband, John Black?' another reporter asked.
Marlena practically hissed!
'Yes, I found them in a compromising position, on my first day back! I have been to the authorities, and have no doubt whatsoever, that when this investigation is over, Rebecca Hotchkiss, and others, will be doing prison time!'
Fox turned off the TV. Whitney and Teresa looked at him.
'Why did you turn that off?' Teresa asked.
'Because it sounded like a load of crap!' Fox snapped. 'Why would Rebecca be in cahoots with Stefano DiMera?'
'Oh, Fox, you should have seen her on that island we were kidnapped to! Rebecca was all over John Black! With Marlena out of the way, she could get her hooks into him. I pray she goes to prison! I pray I get to testify against her!'
Whitney smiled at her friend's misplaced enthusiasm.
'I doubt Marlena Black would lie. It does sound like Rebecca could be in some trouble.' Whitney admitted.
Fox looked away. If Rebecca was in trouble, then so was his father!
'What, Fox?'
Fox hadn't realized Whitney had been looking at him. He smiled weakly at her.
'Nothing, though, there is something else I want to discuss with you later.'
Whitney nodded and smiled. She and Teresa then began conversing, leaving Fox to his own thoughts. For what he wanted to talk about, what his mother...and the prospect of her moving in with them.
****
T.C. lay flat on his back. The TV was on in his room. Tears rolled down his cheeks. For while he could not see the television from his position, he could hear Abe's voice. He knew Lexie was standing by his side.
It was probably for the best. He didn't know if he would ever be able to walk again anyway. He would've never been able to be the type of husband Lexie needed. Or a good father to Theo.
He suddenly burst into sobs.
****
Stefano watched Julian and Eve in his camera room. He leaned back in his chair and smiled.
He had had it with Tony's obsession with this woman. He had also had his fill of the Cranes.
Julian had been wrong about him. Yes, while he primarily kidnapped people, he was not hesitant in his slow, torturous murdering methods, either.
Stefano leaned forward again. He then picked up a phone. For, Eve had not been wrong about the yellow eyes that she had seen on this lovely mountain. They belonged to an experiment gone awry. One that now lived on this isolated part of the mountain.
Someone picked up on the other end. He was going to let his two prisoners go, into the wild. They would never make it. Tony thought Eve was dead anyway. He would never larn of her true fate.
'Release the prisoners.' he said into the phone. He then hung up, his thoughts moving from Julian and Eve, to his and Liz's impending child. Stefano smiled.