"What are you doing here?" she asked him.
Instead of looking at her, Brady fumbled nervously with his watch. His was talking faster than usual and his voice was almost a murmur, it was so low, "Shawn and I saw you and Jan sitting together in the audience on the Sharon Osbourne. We didn't know why both of you had left, so we decided to find you. It took us a while though, you two definitely know how to keep a low profile."
"Right, I know how to keep a low profile." Nicole said distantly, "It's a big help when I'm plotting random people's murders."
"Come on, don't be sarcastic." Brady reprimanded Nicole, "But you know, you are lucky you didn't have the Salem PD after you when left town without a word to anyone. If they weren't so certain that Marlena was involved in the killings, they probably would be after you."
"You still haven't explained what you're doing here." Nicole reminded him coldly. She didn't know where all her hostility and anger towards Brady was coming from. She knew that she was upset that he had found her. She was supposed to be getting the money to support herself so she could divorce Victor. She had wanted that to be a surprise for Brady when she returned to Salem. But now that he was here, he could easily find out what her plans were. He could also find out a lot more than just her own motives, he could find out things that could be potentially dangerous for the well-being of the publicity campaign. But she had to be angry at him for more reasons than just that, she was just having a hard time figuring out what they were.
Brady seemed both shocked and confused at Nicole's icy exterior. He shrugged, "I don't know. I know Shawn wanted to find out what Jan was doing and I guess I was a little curious about why you left Salem without saying anything too. I wanted to see how you were doing."
"Bull shit." Nicole's voice was flat and void of any emotion, "I already know why you're here, Brady. You don't have to pretend. You came and found me so you could take me back to Victor like I'm his property or something. You and Victor probably share the same opinion. You think I'm another one of his assets, don't you?"
"Nicole, calm down." Brady held up his hand to silence her, "I wasn't planning on taking you back to Victor. And I don't consider you Victor's property. I don't consider you anyone's property, you're too wild to be owned by anyone. I wanted to know why you left. Is it too much to ask? I want an answer, that's all."
"If I give you an answer, will you leave?" Nicole blurted out, unable to stop herself. She couldn't believe she was allowing herself to treat Brady like this but she couldn't seem to help herself.
"Maybe."
"Fine. Well, I guess I just felt like getting away." Nicole answered simply, "I felt like I didn't belong in Salem. I couldn't take the stares and the accusations. Haven't you ever wanted to be somewhere where no one knows who you are?"
"Nicole..." Brady's voice trailed off and he touched the side of her arm lightly. His touch was tender and vaguely reminiscent of the times they had shared before he had decided to blame her for any and everything that went wrong in Salem. All those things running through Nicole's mind caused the fingers resting on her skin to feel like they were burning her. She tore her arm away from his touch.
"Of course you wouldn't want that? Why would you? You don't know what I'm go through. With Victor, with you, with everyone. And you don't care anymore, do you? For the longest time, you have treated me like I'm beneath you. And regardless of what you think, I am not beneath you. I have a lot more going for me than you'll ever know."
"Like what?" Brady chuckled, then seeing the look on complete seriousness and anger on Nicole's face stopped him, "Nicole, what is going on? You never treated me like this before? What's happened to you?"
"I don't know." Nicole ran her fingers through her hair, agitation washing over her, "I guess I've regained some of my self-respect. I've spent so much time with Lucas and Sami lately and I see the way Lucas treats Sami and it's amazing. And it makes me wonder why I've always settled for less, chasing after someone who doesn't trust or respect me when, if I wait long enough, maybe I'll find someone who will treat me the way Lucas treats Sami." the words had seemed to come out of nowhere but Nicole realized that she had meant ever word she had said.
Brady was silent for a moment, as if he was unsure of how to respond, "Why have you been spending so much with Lucas and Sami?" he asked, not giving her a response to her words, "I thought you didn't even like them and if you wanted to be somewhere where you didn't know anyone, why follow them around?"
"I do not follow them around." Nicole snapped indignantly, "The three of us and Jan are all travelling together, no one follows anyone."
"But why are you travelling with them?" Brady asked again.
Nicole gritted her teeth and stopped dead in her tracks. She spun around to face him fully, "None of your business. I am not going to tell you anything anymore because it is completely pointless. You don't trust me, so even if I told you the truth, you would probably assume I am lying. Since you don't trust me, I'm not going to trust you either."
"Nicole, what the hell is going on with you?" Brady demanded sharply, "You're not yourself and I want to know what's happened that's made you act so different."
"I'm not myself?" Nicole repeated incredulously, "Why, just because I'm worshipping you the way I did back in Salem? There's so much about you don't know and yet you still just make assumptions. I can't take that anymore. And I've- I've fallen in love with Jan!" she finished, remembering the conversation she had with Jan the day before.
Brady's jaw dropped, "Jan? You have got to be kidding me." Nicole made sure her face was a mask of honestly and his eyes widened even more, "But- but she's such a loser." he sputtered finally.
"Why? Because she's a girl?" Nicole's eyes flashed with fake anger, "But you what? I don't care if you don't approve because you mean nothing to me, Brady. You are a heartless bastard and I hope you have a nice life with opera bitch, spending every free moment you have with Chloe serenading her." with that final word, Nicole shoved Brady into the swimming pool and stormed away, inwardly congratulating herself for her dramatic performance. If that didn't peak Brady's interest, then nothing would.
Brady pulled himself up to the surface of the water, shocked that Nicole had gotten up the nerve to push him in. He certainly hadn't been expecting it. Then again, he hadn't expected her to give him the cold shoulder when she had him and he definitely had not expected to admit her love for a woman. But he had to admit, her new attitude towards him was different and kind of refreshing in comparison to the way she had acted in Salem. Something had changed her and Brady had a feeling the change was a good one. All he had to do was win her over again. Unless she had gone full-out lesbian on him. Then he was screwed.
"I can't believe we finally tracked you down." Jan looked up at the sound of Shawn's voice, a smile spreading across her face. But the smile faded when she saw that not only Shawn but Lucas, were standing before her.
"Why did you bring him here?" Jan asked, feeling her face growing hot again. After Shawn had demanded that she give him some answers about what she had been doing with Lucas, Jan had run out of the room in embarrassment, hoping that Shawn would run after her. It had worked so well the last time, when she had left Salem and obviously, it never failed where Shawn was concerned. She just wished he hadn't decided to bring Lucas along, since she wasn't in the mood to face him at the moment.
"Hmm, let's see." Shawn looked from Lucas to Jan for a moment, as if trying to figure out what was going on between them, "I couldn't find you, so I went back up to Lucas' room to see if he would help me find you after I spent half an hour running around the hotel. I was also hoping he would explain what happened between you two in the hotel room but according to Lucas, he doesn't know either."
"Yeah and I was sort of hoping you would explain that too." Lucas added, giving her a pointed look.
"Why should I tell you anything?" Jan challenged him.
"Fine, don't tell me anything." Lucas smirked, "I'm really going to hate having to tell Sami my version of what happened then. And after I finish telling her my story, she'll be so mad at you that she'll-"
"Fine." Jan cut him off, "Nicole made me go into your room to get her stuff. But then you and Sami came in and I thought you would be mad at me for being in your room, so I hid under the desk. I thought you would leave but then you, um, didn't. Then, when I tried to leave, you came out of the bathroom and caught me. That's all." Although, you do have a very cute butt. Not as nice as Shawn's though. Lucas snickered and Shawn looked like he was blushing. Jan froze and wondered if she had accidentally voiced her thoughts out loud.
"Thanks, I'm really glad you like my butt." Lucas said dryly, not seeming embarrassed at all by her words, "Even if I do take second place to Shawn." Jan bit back a groan and wondered it was possible for her to make an ever bigger idiot out of herself that day than she already had.
"I don't want to talk about it." Jan said shortly, turning her attention to Shawn, "But I do want to know why you're here."
Shawn seemed flustered by Jan's words, "I don't know, Brady wanted to find Nicole and I knew you were with Nicole so I figured I might as well go with him. I was a little confused about you leaving after you had worked so hard to try and get my attention."
Lucas cleared his throat, "I think this would be a good time to tell him about Nicole, Jan." Lucas prompted her. It took a minute for Jan to figure out what Lucas was talking about but then it dawned on her.
"I guess it would. Shawn, Nicole is my... girlfriend." Jan finished.
"Girlfriend?" Shawn repeated blankly, "What kind of girlfriend?"
"The most un-platonic kind of girlfriend you can have." Jan responded cheerfully. As it sank in, a look of comprehension floated onto Shawn's face. Jan gave him a mock-sympathetic smile, "But don't worry, we can still be friends. I know I might have sort of made a pest out of myself in Salem but I know we can put in behind-" Shawn reddened suddenly and Lucas gave threw a taunting grin in Jan's direction.
"I thought you didn't want to talk about it anymore." Lucas said and Jan realized that using the word 'behind' had obviously been a mistake.
"But- but-" Jan stammered, growing increasingly nervous as Lucas' smile broadened.
"You just can't seem to stop talking about it Jan." Lucas shook his head, pretending to be disgusted, "You really need to find something else to think about."
"I didn't mean 'butt'." Jan protested, "I meant but- God damn it!" she yelled in frustration, glaring at Lucas. Then she turned to Shawn, "Look, we can about things some other time, okay? But I cannot carry on a decent conversation with him here. With that, she pushed her way past Lucas and Shawn and began to walk away.