Second Chances: Paying the Price
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ric turned the key in the lock and let himself inside the darkened house - the house that had once been home to himself and Elizabeth. He didn't bother turning on the light but instead moved to the wet bar situated quietly in the corner of the room. His propensity for scotch had been growing these days. The ice clinked against the thick crystal glass as the amber liquid washed over them. With one long gulp Ric downed the contents of the glass and poured himself another hoping to forget everything that was wrong in his life for even just a fraction of a second - yet that didn't happen.
He glanced around the room memories flooding his senses again. He could hear her telling him how extravagant the house was, that his apartment would be fine for them. How she had wished he had let her help with choosing their new home. Yet he had a well-planned comeback for each one of her protests. He had to have that house. He had gone to great lengths to ensure that it had everything he needed to execute his scheme. But where had that gotten him? There he sat alone, no Elizabeth, no baby - nothing.
"Damn you, Sonny!" His voice echoed in the eerily silent room. Sonny had been stealing things from Ric his entire life. Because of his big brother, Ric grew up without a mother. Adella had chosen Sonny over him. She had left him with a menace of a father. She couldn't bear to part with her precious Sonny, yet leaving him as an infant had been so easy. Ric felt his chest tighten as those painful memories drowned him. There wasn't a day that didn't go by that Trevor Lansing hadn't reminded him of how disposable he had been to his mother. It had been so ingrained in him that for a long time Ric felt worthless - until Elizabeth. But Sonny had managed again to take that love away too. He not only had taken his wife but his child as well. It wasn't fair. Sonny had Michael and a new baby on the way. He and Elizabeth had nothing. All he had wanted to do was balance the scales. Give them back what had been taken from them. Why couldn't Elizabeth understand that? Why had she shut him out without so much as an explanation? Why was Morgan worthy a dozen-second chances and he wasn't worth even one? Ric shook his head trying to rid himself of the voices screaming in his head.
He lifted the decanter full of liquor and carried it with him as he made his way across the room and up the stairs to his bedroom. Again he dispensed with the illuminating the room. In its darken state he could delude himself for a bit longer that he might actually find his wife curled up sleeping in the bed rather than knowing all too well where she truly was.
Ric slumped against the foot of the expansive bed and sat the crystal container on the floor beside him when he had filled his glass for the third or fourth time, he'd lost count. The reality that Elizabeth was more than likely sleeping alongside Jason Morgan that night struck him like brute force. Every reflection he once carried of her in his mind was now distorted by Morgan's constant presence in Elizabeth's life. He clenched his fist around the glass with such intensity he almost felt it give under the pressure.
Out of the corner of his eye the silky fabric of a babydoll nighty that Elizabeth had left behind caught his attention. He had left everything in the room just as it had been the day that Elizabeth walked away. It was his way of holding a place for her. Her toiletries were still scattered around the master bathroom. The vanilla scented shampoo she loved was perched on the corner of the tub. If a person hadn't known better they would have thought that she still very much lived there.
Ric made his way along the floor until his hands reached the arm of the chair and snatched the delicate pale fabric between his fingers. He caressed it as though he were caressing Elizabeth. It was oddly comforting yet to any casual observer - it would have come across as quite bizarre.
Gently he rubbed it against his cheek rough from several days worth of dark stubble. He smiled almost melancholy at the thought of how he used to tickle her body with his whiskers from a day's missed shaving when they made love. That thought brought his attention to the king size bed that sat in the middle of the room. He let out a half hearted laugh recalling how Elizabeth said they didn't need such a large bed and how she ended up sleeping pressed against him night after night just to prove her point.
He had never believed it when people spoke of having a broken heart until now. He knew exactly what those people had been talking about. He felt that his heart was left in pieces on the floor of that room the day that Elizabeth tore from it never looking back.
His eyes were drawn the photo of her that sat on the nightstand on his side of the bed. Her bright blues eyes smiled at him. That was the Elizabeth he remembered the Elizabeth that pledged to love him forever. How had forever become so short lived?
Jason Morgan - that was how. He had stuck his nose in where it hadn't belonged over and over again. He was constantly checking up on Elizabeth, even when she expressly had told him not to. Jason's persistence that he was tied to Carly's disappearance had gotten her to question Ric and his motives. Jason had told her that she was married to a rapist. That had been coupled with her stumbling upon Carly chained to the panic room wall had been the final nails in the coffin of their marriage.
For Ric all during his relationship with Elizabeth, Jason was like a gnat on a warm summer's night. Well that was about to change. It was time that bothersome bug was squashed finally. He didn't care what Jason thought he was entitled to.it wouldn't be his wife.
"Damn you, Morgan!" Ric threw his glass across the room careening against the dark wall showering the room in glass.
The shrill sound of the doorbell disturbed his train of thought. He would have been content to stay there and ignore whoever was at the door yet the continual ringing of the bell told a different tale. Ric picked up the decanter of scotch and headed to rid himself of the person on the other side of his door.
"What?" he barked when he threw the six panel door open.
"Testy aren't we this evening?" Faith asked as she breezed passed him and into the room.
"Since when do you knock?" he questioned.
"I thought I would try something different," she giggled. "What's got you in such a foul mood?"
"Where were you today?"
"Since when do I answer to you?" Faith returned his sharp tone with one of her own.
"Where were you today?" he repeated as his mind centered on Elizabeth's latest trip to the hospital.
"Working on business."
"What business?" He disliked her vague answers.
"Bringing down Sonny and the five families, duh." She sounded as though she was talking some dolt.
"What were you doing?"
"Why the third degree?" She turned the tables on the interrogation. "Since when do you question my dealings?"
"Since Elizabeth ended up in the hospital this afternoon. What did you do to her?" The question had left Ric's mouth before he had even thought about it.
"Why is it that I am your first suspect anytime the calamity waitress gets even so much as a hang nail?"
"Well let's see, snakes - poisoned lemonade - shall I go on?"
"Seems to me you still have yearnings for a woman who wants nothing to do with you!" Faith's jealousy bled into her voice. "She's all but said you are dead to her but you aren't getting the picture. Why is that?"
Ric saw the anger flash across Faith's face and he knew that he was about to blow it all if he didn't get a better handle on the situation. He was supposed to be convincing Faith that Elizabeth was the last thing on his mind anymore, but that was proving to be more difficult than he had expected.
"I know Elizabeth and I are over." He nearly choked on those words and did the best he could to sound believable.
"Oh really? It didn't appear that way a minute ago when you were accusing me of bringing harm to your precious Elizabeth." Faith emphasized her name with a singsong sort of intonation.
"Don't you get it..."
"No," she cut him off. "No I don't."
"I'm going to be the first person Morgan comes looking for if something happens to Elizabeth. He's made it perfectly clear what could happen to me." Ric wasn't about to go into his little incident with Johnny O'Brien, but he wanted no parts of a repeat performance. That's why he had to make this work. "Don't you get it, if you keep going after Elizabeth you are going to draw attention to me and then inadvertently to yourself as well. How is that going to help us get what we want? How's that going to help us bring down Sonny quietly if his enforcer is breathing down our necks?" Ric had impressed even himself with his quick thinking.
"Who said I wanted any parts of doing anything quietly to Sonny?" she stressed.
"Like your in your face tactics have worked so far?"
"And yours have worked so well too?" she countered.
Ric bit the inside of his mouth hard to contain his anger. Dealing with Faith was like dealing with a toddler always on the verge of a tantrum. "See why we need a different approach then?"
He walked across the room to where she stood and as appalled, as he was to be doing it he wrapped his arms around her waist. He knew enough about Ms. Roscoe to know that she responded to two things and two things only - sex and power. He was about to give her at least one of those.
He drew her body against his and let his hands walk her tight leather skirt higher up on her thighs. He watched her eyes widen in delight as his fingers toyed with thick tufts that guarded her femininity. He closed his eyes and imagined Elizabeth as he suckled Faith's neck.
Despite not wanting to become aroused it happened anyhow when Faith slipped her hands inside his jeans. She had quickness to her touch that had Ric suddenly not caring who she was. He had a hunger that needed fed and before he knew what hit him they were naked on the living room floor.
Ric rolled over and for a brief second expected to see Elizabeth lying beside him on the Prussian carpet. The realization that it was Faith hit him hard and fast nearly knocking the wind out of him. He slipped out from under the chenille throw quietly and pulled his pants on. It was funny to watch Faith Roscoe sleeping. In that state she seemed almost human. Almost like a woman a man could actually love. It just would never be him no matter how much she wanted that.
He finished getting dressed, put on his jacket and left Faith sleeping on the floor. Once outside the brisk night air helped to center him. He knew what he had done was for the greater good and in the end it would be all worth it. He reached inside the pocket of his sheepskin jacket and brought forth a piece of red glass, unsure of it's true meaning but knowing that it indeed represented something.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ric turned the key in the lock and let himself inside the darkened house - the house that had once been home to himself and Elizabeth. He didn't bother turning on the light but instead moved to the wet bar situated quietly in the corner of the room. His propensity for scotch had been growing these days. The ice clinked against the thick crystal glass as the amber liquid washed over them. With one long gulp Ric downed the contents of the glass and poured himself another hoping to forget everything that was wrong in his life for even just a fraction of a second - yet that didn't happen.
He glanced around the room memories flooding his senses again. He could hear her telling him how extravagant the house was, that his apartment would be fine for them. How she had wished he had let her help with choosing their new home. Yet he had a well-planned comeback for each one of her protests. He had to have that house. He had gone to great lengths to ensure that it had everything he needed to execute his scheme. But where had that gotten him? There he sat alone, no Elizabeth, no baby - nothing.
"Damn you, Sonny!" His voice echoed in the eerily silent room. Sonny had been stealing things from Ric his entire life. Because of his big brother, Ric grew up without a mother. Adella had chosen Sonny over him. She had left him with a menace of a father. She couldn't bear to part with her precious Sonny, yet leaving him as an infant had been so easy. Ric felt his chest tighten as those painful memories drowned him. There wasn't a day that didn't go by that Trevor Lansing hadn't reminded him of how disposable he had been to his mother. It had been so ingrained in him that for a long time Ric felt worthless - until Elizabeth. But Sonny had managed again to take that love away too. He not only had taken his wife but his child as well. It wasn't fair. Sonny had Michael and a new baby on the way. He and Elizabeth had nothing. All he had wanted to do was balance the scales. Give them back what had been taken from them. Why couldn't Elizabeth understand that? Why had she shut him out without so much as an explanation? Why was Morgan worthy a dozen-second chances and he wasn't worth even one? Ric shook his head trying to rid himself of the voices screaming in his head.
He lifted the decanter full of liquor and carried it with him as he made his way across the room and up the stairs to his bedroom. Again he dispensed with the illuminating the room. In its darken state he could delude himself for a bit longer that he might actually find his wife curled up sleeping in the bed rather than knowing all too well where she truly was.
Ric slumped against the foot of the expansive bed and sat the crystal container on the floor beside him when he had filled his glass for the third or fourth time, he'd lost count. The reality that Elizabeth was more than likely sleeping alongside Jason Morgan that night struck him like brute force. Every reflection he once carried of her in his mind was now distorted by Morgan's constant presence in Elizabeth's life. He clenched his fist around the glass with such intensity he almost felt it give under the pressure.
Out of the corner of his eye the silky fabric of a babydoll nighty that Elizabeth had left behind caught his attention. He had left everything in the room just as it had been the day that Elizabeth walked away. It was his way of holding a place for her. Her toiletries were still scattered around the master bathroom. The vanilla scented shampoo she loved was perched on the corner of the tub. If a person hadn't known better they would have thought that she still very much lived there.
Ric made his way along the floor until his hands reached the arm of the chair and snatched the delicate pale fabric between his fingers. He caressed it as though he were caressing Elizabeth. It was oddly comforting yet to any casual observer - it would have come across as quite bizarre.
Gently he rubbed it against his cheek rough from several days worth of dark stubble. He smiled almost melancholy at the thought of how he used to tickle her body with his whiskers from a day's missed shaving when they made love. That thought brought his attention to the king size bed that sat in the middle of the room. He let out a half hearted laugh recalling how Elizabeth said they didn't need such a large bed and how she ended up sleeping pressed against him night after night just to prove her point.
He had never believed it when people spoke of having a broken heart until now. He knew exactly what those people had been talking about. He felt that his heart was left in pieces on the floor of that room the day that Elizabeth tore from it never looking back.
His eyes were drawn the photo of her that sat on the nightstand on his side of the bed. Her bright blues eyes smiled at him. That was the Elizabeth he remembered the Elizabeth that pledged to love him forever. How had forever become so short lived?
Jason Morgan - that was how. He had stuck his nose in where it hadn't belonged over and over again. He was constantly checking up on Elizabeth, even when she expressly had told him not to. Jason's persistence that he was tied to Carly's disappearance had gotten her to question Ric and his motives. Jason had told her that she was married to a rapist. That had been coupled with her stumbling upon Carly chained to the panic room wall had been the final nails in the coffin of their marriage.
For Ric all during his relationship with Elizabeth, Jason was like a gnat on a warm summer's night. Well that was about to change. It was time that bothersome bug was squashed finally. He didn't care what Jason thought he was entitled to.it wouldn't be his wife.
"Damn you, Morgan!" Ric threw his glass across the room careening against the dark wall showering the room in glass.
The shrill sound of the doorbell disturbed his train of thought. He would have been content to stay there and ignore whoever was at the door yet the continual ringing of the bell told a different tale. Ric picked up the decanter of scotch and headed to rid himself of the person on the other side of his door.
"What?" he barked when he threw the six panel door open.
"Testy aren't we this evening?" Faith asked as she breezed passed him and into the room.
"Since when do you knock?" he questioned.
"I thought I would try something different," she giggled. "What's got you in such a foul mood?"
"Where were you today?"
"Since when do I answer to you?" Faith returned his sharp tone with one of her own.
"Where were you today?" he repeated as his mind centered on Elizabeth's latest trip to the hospital.
"Working on business."
"What business?" He disliked her vague answers.
"Bringing down Sonny and the five families, duh." She sounded as though she was talking some dolt.
"What were you doing?"
"Why the third degree?" She turned the tables on the interrogation. "Since when do you question my dealings?"
"Since Elizabeth ended up in the hospital this afternoon. What did you do to her?" The question had left Ric's mouth before he had even thought about it.
"Why is it that I am your first suspect anytime the calamity waitress gets even so much as a hang nail?"
"Well let's see, snakes - poisoned lemonade - shall I go on?"
"Seems to me you still have yearnings for a woman who wants nothing to do with you!" Faith's jealousy bled into her voice. "She's all but said you are dead to her but you aren't getting the picture. Why is that?"
Ric saw the anger flash across Faith's face and he knew that he was about to blow it all if he didn't get a better handle on the situation. He was supposed to be convincing Faith that Elizabeth was the last thing on his mind anymore, but that was proving to be more difficult than he had expected.
"I know Elizabeth and I are over." He nearly choked on those words and did the best he could to sound believable.
"Oh really? It didn't appear that way a minute ago when you were accusing me of bringing harm to your precious Elizabeth." Faith emphasized her name with a singsong sort of intonation.
"Don't you get it..."
"No," she cut him off. "No I don't."
"I'm going to be the first person Morgan comes looking for if something happens to Elizabeth. He's made it perfectly clear what could happen to me." Ric wasn't about to go into his little incident with Johnny O'Brien, but he wanted no parts of a repeat performance. That's why he had to make this work. "Don't you get it, if you keep going after Elizabeth you are going to draw attention to me and then inadvertently to yourself as well. How is that going to help us get what we want? How's that going to help us bring down Sonny quietly if his enforcer is breathing down our necks?" Ric had impressed even himself with his quick thinking.
"Who said I wanted any parts of doing anything quietly to Sonny?" she stressed.
"Like your in your face tactics have worked so far?"
"And yours have worked so well too?" she countered.
Ric bit the inside of his mouth hard to contain his anger. Dealing with Faith was like dealing with a toddler always on the verge of a tantrum. "See why we need a different approach then?"
He walked across the room to where she stood and as appalled, as he was to be doing it he wrapped his arms around her waist. He knew enough about Ms. Roscoe to know that she responded to two things and two things only - sex and power. He was about to give her at least one of those.
He drew her body against his and let his hands walk her tight leather skirt higher up on her thighs. He watched her eyes widen in delight as his fingers toyed with thick tufts that guarded her femininity. He closed his eyes and imagined Elizabeth as he suckled Faith's neck.
Despite not wanting to become aroused it happened anyhow when Faith slipped her hands inside his jeans. She had quickness to her touch that had Ric suddenly not caring who she was. He had a hunger that needed fed and before he knew what hit him they were naked on the living room floor.
Ric rolled over and for a brief second expected to see Elizabeth lying beside him on the Prussian carpet. The realization that it was Faith hit him hard and fast nearly knocking the wind out of him. He slipped out from under the chenille throw quietly and pulled his pants on. It was funny to watch Faith Roscoe sleeping. In that state she seemed almost human. Almost like a woman a man could actually love. It just would never be him no matter how much she wanted that.
He finished getting dressed, put on his jacket and left Faith sleeping on the floor. Once outside the brisk night air helped to center him. He knew what he had done was for the greater good and in the end it would be all worth it. He reached inside the pocket of his sheepskin jacket and brought forth a piece of red glass, unsure of it's true meaning but knowing that it indeed represented something.