Lucas took the position on the stage to the left of Rex while Phillip stood on the right-hand side of the stage. The lights remained dimly lit and muffled silence hung in the air for only a few moments, barely giving Lucas the chance to find his composure. He couldn't remember the last time he had been this nervous about something. While the lights were still dim, he tugged at his pants with mild discomfort. He definitely wasn't used to wearing pants like these ones. They appeared to be really tight but they were actually stretchy and held together only by velcro, so they would be easy to rip off without totally destroying. Of course, he had no intention of taking off his pants for this first round of strip-dancing. Bonnie had already warned all of the men working that night that they would be going up on stage multiple times that night, so he would start undressing once he got more comfortable with the whole stripping thing.
Light suddenly illuminated Rex, Phillip's and his own positions on stage and pulsating music filled the room. The words of the song were lost on Lucas' ears as he slowly began to move on the stage, it was nothing more than a blurred mass of throbbing noises. He put his hands on his hips and slowly grinded his hips around in a full circle, taking in his audience at the same time. There were chairs set up right along the edges of the stage for women who wanted to get up close and personal with the strippers and every one of those chairs was filled. As he moved his hips in time to the music, his eyes took in every woman sitting in the chairs on his side of the stage until his eyes finally froze on one woman in particular.
Nicole Kiriakis's eyes were wide with shock and disbelief as she watched Lucas. Two woman sat on either side of her, one in a black mini-dress and the other in a hot pink top, both of which were waving money in the air for Lucas to come and take. Lucas slid his hand down his side and began to dance in Nicole's direction. He continued to watch Nicole, who had finally seemed to get over her shock. She gave him a dark look and shook her head almost imperceptibly, warning him to stay away from her. Lucas shot Nicole a taunting smile and ran his hands down his body again before crouching down to the stage floor and crawling over to the edge of the stage. His eyes sparking with laughter, he gave Nicole another grin before taking the money out of the first woman's hand with his teeth. That was when he realized that he was actually enjoying this. The dancing part was exhilarating and he loved the way the woman in the club were screaming at him to 'take it off'. And on top of that, he could to piss off his profligate ex-wife. He watched Nicole cross her legs in her seat and glare up at him. Yeah, I could definitely get used to this.
Kate stepped out of the bathroom and noticed John standing off the side of the club's entrance, wiping his forehead with a small rag. Kate frowned and walked over to meet John.
"John, I never expected to see you in a place like this," Kate remarked, a little embarrassed to be caught at a place like this but such a good friend of hers, "What are you doing here?"
John cleared his throat, and adjusted the tie around his neck, "I was just checking up on Belle. I don't want her getting into any trouble but these places can get out of hand sometimes and that's a fact."
"I see. Well, let's go find her then," Kate responded, moving back into the crowded mass of tables, women, smoke and music, "You know, I'm really glad I don't have to worry about this sort of things with my sons."
John nodded, then looked on the stage and froze, "Are you sure about that, Kate?" he asked through clenched teeth, diverting his gaze from the half-naked men up on the stage.
"Sure, I'm sure," Kate answered without pausing to think about it, "My boys wouldn't be caught dead in here. I mean they have no reason to want to-" Kate cut herself off in mid-sentence as her own eyes found their way up to the stage, "John, am I seeing things?" she asked him, her voice so low that John could barely make out what she was saying thanks to the loud music.
"I don't think so," John replied, letting the woman lean on him for support. Her eyes fluttered shut and her body went limp and for a moment, John thought she had fainted. Then Kate sprang to life.
"Oh my Gawd!" she shrieked, causing a large number of people to turn around and look at her. Kate ripped at John's jacket, "Those boys are very bad and I must punish them." she was gritting out furiously, "But first, I have to get some clothes on them. What they're doing is dreadful." Kate managed to pull John's outer jacket and suit jacket off him and began storming towards the stage. She pushed past the other audience members with John hot on her heels. Once she reached the stage, she turned back around to John.
"Give me a leg up," She ordered him. Sensing his hesitation, she tightened her lips and then let out a shrill cry of, "John, please!"
John relented and helped the frenzied woman onto the stage. Once Kate was standing on the stage, she turned around to look at her sons, trying to decide which one to cover first. There was Lucas, who was crawling along the stage and taking dollar bills from woman in his mouth and then stuffing them down his pants. Then there was Rex, who was gyrating against the pole in the center of the stage and Phillip, who was doing something that could only be described as 'humping the air'. Lucas was completely ignoring her while Rex seemed annoyed with her, his features darkening into a scowl and he moved against the metal pole. Phillip seemed almost amused, a faint smile on his face as he danced and the smile only widened when people began to boo his mother.
Kate felt her face heat up with mortification as the booing sounds filled her ears. She, Katherine Elizabeth Roberts, was actually being booed. The nerve of these ridiculous women.
"Get off the stage, ya old hag!" A woman seated at one the tables called viciously.
"Yeah, granny, no one wants you around!" A startlingly familiar voice added and Kate turned to see the woman who had been dancing with John at the Blue Note sitting near the edge of the stage, way too close to Lucas for Kate's liking. After inwardly debating whether to cover up her pole humping son or air humping son for a little while longer, she decided she would cover up Rex first, since he was closer. She went right over to him and draped John's jacket over his shoulders. Rex glowered at her and pulled off the jacket.
"Mom, stop it!" he hissed, then smiled out at the crowd and tossed the jacket over to a table filled with woman. John turned to the women who were now practically molesting his jacket with a pained look. And it was such a nice jacket too, he thought to himself sadly. But by this time, Kate had already rushed over to Phillip and had helped him into John's suit jacket.
"Here you go, honey," Kate said, fumbling over the buttons, "You just cover yourself up really good, okay?"
"Thanks, lady!" Phillip yelled over the music, then danced away from Kate. Lady? Kate repeated to herself in horror, How dare he talk to me like that? I'm just trying to do what's best for him. Then Kate watched as Phillip pulled the jacket lapels apart, ripping the few buttons Kate had done up and spinning around. He then turned his back to the audience and let the suit jacket drop down his back and shook his entire body for the crowd's benefit. The crowd was now alternating between cheering for the three men and trying to boo Kate off stage. Two uniformed men were on the stage now and were making their way towards Kate. Kate scurried out the men's reach and headed over to Lucas, who was back on his feet and doing dance moves that were even more provocative that the ones Rex and Phillip had been doing. I think I'm going to be sick, Kate thought as she watched Lucas tug his pants down a little bit so the thin strap of what was undoubtedly a g-string was visible. Everyone in his corner was cheering until Kate's hands latched onto his shoulders.
"Lucas, get off this stage right now. Go put some clothes on!" she screeched while several woman got to their feet in protest.
"Lay off, bitch!" one of the women sitting next to Nicole yelled. She reached down underneath her and came back up with a chunky, black sandal.
"My shoe!" Nicole cried, watching as it sailed through the air before hitting Kate squarely in the side of her head, knocking Kate unconscious. Satisfied with herself, the woman sat back down, too busy gloating to notice Phillip, Rex and Lucas all watching her with entertained looks on their faces.
The song ended and Rex gave Nicole her shoe back before he left the stage with his two brothers. Nicole thanked him, then turned to Jan.
"Why did you throw my shoe?" Nicole demanded in a hostile voice.
"Because I didn't want to throw my shoe." Jan answered easily, "I like my shoe and it would be a waste to throw it at a crazy woman like that. Besides, mine are kinda hard to get off."
Nicole's irritated frown morphed into a smile when she realized how hilarious the situation really was, "I still can't believe Kate went up there and did that. And I can't believe that Lucas and Phillip and Rex are all strippers. I wonder how Sami's taking it. Knowing her, she's probably freaking out right now." Nicole stood and surveyed the women in the club, trying to catch sight of Sami. After a few moments, she shook her head with disappointment, "She must not be here."
"Who's Sami?" Crystal asked.
"She's the mother of Lucas' child. I bet she'd be really ticked off if she saw him up there." Nicole was silent for a moment, then spoke again with determination, "Well, I want to see her face when she finally sees Lucas in stripping action. I'm going to go get her."
With that, Nicole stood up and hurried out of the club, hoping she wouldn't have to miss too much stripping action while carrying out her plan.
Sami groaned under her breath when she heard the knocks sounding off her door. She said a quick prayer that it wasn't Belle again and flung the door open. It wasn't Belle but that definitely wasn't an improvement. Standing in front of her was none other than Nicole.
"What do you want?" Sami muttered, looking at the floor.
Nicole watched Sami through solemn eyes, "I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am about Lucas." she told Sami.
Sami's head jerked up in surprise at the mention of Lucas' name, "What about Lucas? What's wrong with him?"
"Oh, a lot of things," Nicole answered, "To start off with, I walked in on him in this changing room the other day and he was trying on lady's underwear-"
"No way," Sami shot back.
"It's true!" Nicole retorted before continuing, "And tonight I caught him, um, dancing, with Rex and Phillip. And I don't even want to go into what I mean by 'dancing' because it was so horrible. I don't know if I'll ever recover from seeing that."
"You are such a liar!" Sami exploded, "How can you say all these about Lucas? He wouldn't 'dance' with other men, let alone his brothers."
Good, she's taking it exactly the way I wanted her to take it, Nicole thought, "Well, I can't say I blame him. All the woman in this town, with the exception of me, are insane. Your mother was even a demon-possessed serial killer. What's a poor guy to do?"
"Where is he?" Sami demanded, "I won't believe it unless I see it."
"I can show you exactly where he is and I will prove to you that I'm telling the truth." Nicole assured her, then eyed Sami's pajamas with distaste, "But you should probably change first."
Sami stepped further back inside her apartment, looking a little bit dazed by Nicole's news, "I'll do that. And I'll be quick too," she added, giving Nicole a sharp look, "Because the sooner we find him, the sooner I can prove that you're nothing but a lying tramp! Dancing with his brothers, my ass!"
