I'm going to fast forward the story 6 months so it will be June 2004 when Chapter Seven begins. Laurie and Joni are off the show living the good life at Columbia University and I will be using the current cast as story continues.

Although I hate to see Amelia Heinle leave as Mia later this month, I have to believe there will be some good storyline options for Simone even when that happens.

Only one character that's no longer on the show will continue on and that will become evident if you continue reading.

One other aspect I should clear up in case it's not obvious. There is no baby for Bianca and there was no rape. Babe however did have her baby.

I think that's all that needs to be cleared up for now. All disclaimers are in Chapter One.

Chapter Seven.

Greenlee rolled over in bed and smiled as she saw Kendall sleeping away so peacefully, but before she could enjoy the moment for long, the phone began ringing. Leaning over Kendall's still sleeping body, Greenlee grabbed the cell phone on the night table and got up and stepped outside the bedroom to answer it, "This better be good."

"Oh it is, meet me at Fusion, I've got some great news for you."

"I'm not going anywhere with you Ryan unless you tell me what this is about." Greenlee said with a loud whisper.

"It's your call. Well, I'll talk to you later then." Ryan said with a smile as he waited for Greenlee to respond.

"Fine, I'll meet you when I can. Is Kendall invited? Because the last thing we need is you coming between us again." Greenlee said, peaking into the bedroom to see if Kendall was awake.

"You still want to blame me because you and Kendall can't resist my charm? I think that's just a wee bit unfair, don't you?" Ryan said as he sipped his morning coffee. "Why you arrogant son of a..."

"I see the fire is still burning bright for me, that's good to see. It'll make our meeting that much more interesting. Don't ya think? I'll see you soon." Ryan hung up the phone before Greenlee could respond and leaned back in his chair with a proud smile on his face.

Greenlee called out Ryan's name a couple times and then was about to toss the cell phone against the wall when Kendall walked into the hallway, "Woah, I hope you aren't mad at me."

"Oh god I'm sorry, I just got a very annoying phone call and well, never mind...you look like you could use a little more sleep." Greenlee said as she moved up to Kendall and put her arms around her, "Are you still thinking about Erica?"

Kendall sighed and then looked at Greenlee, "Well, I feel guilty about not telling you guys about her latest offer. I just can't think straight when it comes to dear old mom. Maybe you could be more objective about it. I have the proposal in my briefcase if you want to get Mia and Simone and have a look at it."

"I know you don't want to be involved with Erica, but we are having some cash flow problems and even with Cambias awaiting trial, he's still been able to do a lot of damage to our company." Greenlee said as she led Kendall back into the bedroom and sat her on the bed, "I would never take money from Erica unless you were okay with it, but if we don't get some help soon, we won't have a company to worry about."

"This is what makes me so mad." Kendall said as she got to her feet, "I know it would help us, but I can't see past the fact it's just another way for Erica to control one of her daughters. Even one she doesn't care about, she still wants to control me. It's who she is." Kendall took a moment to breathe and looked back at Greenlee, "Look, if Fusion needs Erica Kane's money to survive, I won't stand in the way. I want this to work and I will try to keep my pride of this."

"It's okay, we'll keep searching for another way out of this mess." Greenlee reassured, "I have a meeting at Fusion I have to get to, are you still going shopping with Mia and Simone today?"

Kendall's eyes lit up and the mention of shopping, "I'm glad you reminded me, I completely forgot." Kendall then turned away from Greenlee, immediately stepped out of her tiny nightgown and then turned over her shoulder as she walked slowly towards the bathroom, "I need a shower, care to join me?"

Greenlee smiled, stripped out of her t-shirt and panties and took Kendall's hand. They hopped into the shower and for the next 45 minutes, they did everything but shower.

Bianca arrived at Enchantment bright and early to find Erica talking to Anita Santos. Assuming the worst, Bianca rushed into Erica's office, "Is something wrong?" she said as she gave her mother a big hug.

"No sweetheart, it's nothing medical, I was just talking to Anita about a possible job offer." Erica said calmly, stepping back from Bianca and looking back at Anita, "This is my beautiful daughter Bianca."

"Hi Bianca, it's nice to meet you." Anita said, holding out her hand for Bianca to shake. "Hi Anita, I'm really sorry to barge in on you like this. I'm just going to leave and you can pretend I wasn't here. Bye." Bianca said quickly and then started to rush towards the door.

"Wait." Erica shouted as she ran over and pulled Bianca back towards Anita, "Bianca, I asked Anita here so she could speak with you. I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about this first, but I just got caught up in work and forgot. Anyway, I think Anita would be perfect for your new perfume campaign. She's young, beautiful, successful and would be a great role model for all the women of Pine Valley and the rest of the world. What do you think?"

Bianca didn't have a chance to think about her answer as Erica took Bianca's silence as agreement, "I knew you'd love it. Why don't you take Anita back to your office and you can work out the details. I have to go now. I have a meeting with Jack at the courthouse, more Cambias nonsense. I can't wait until that psycho is behind bars for good. Okay, bye for now."

Anita was smiling as Erica sashayed out of the office as Bianca looked on in disbelief, "She really is something."

Bianca turned to Anita and started laughing, "Oh she's something alright, I just don't know what this is most of time."

"Listen, if you aren't comfortable with this idea that's fine. I completely understand." Anita picked up her purse and walked over to the door beside Bianca. "Can I ask if the idea for the ad campaign was yours or did Erica give me the details wrong?"

"Oh the ad campaign is my idea, but I hadn't even put any thought into who would be our spokeswoman. I just told mom this yesterday. She's just trying to help, but she's pretty good when it comes to things like this." Bianca added as she walked with Anita into the reception area, "I would like to set up some test shots if we can work something out. She was right about one thing; you would be a great role model for this perfume."

"Well thank you, I think it would be fun. I'm sure I'd be a horrible model, but I'd like it give it a shot. I love trying new things." Anita enthused, "Can I ask what you are calling your new perfume?"

"I guess so, but I will have to ask you not to talk much about it until I make the official announcement tomorrow. It's called Unexpected." Bianca smiled, brushed gently past Anita, picked up a sample of the perfume from the counter and handed it to her. "Here, why don't you see what you think before sign on for the campaign."

Anita took the sample and put a few drops on her wrist and a dash on her neck and then put her wrist up to her nose and took in the aroma. Seconds later a smile covered her pretty face, "This is amazing. It's so fresh and yet it makes me feel sexy at the same time. You might have a hit on your hands with this."

"I hope people enjoy it. I had so much fun creating it." Bianca stated Well, maybe not all fun, since mostly it was hours of frustration trying to get it just right, but I'm happy with how it turned out."

Anita looked down at her watch and her eyes lit up, "OMG, I have to go. I can't believe I talked to your mother for so long. I've got to get back to the hospital. Call me when you have more details about all this. Bye now."

"I will. Bye." Bianca said as she watched Anita rush out of the room. Maggie stepped out of the way as Anita rushed passed her and then made her way towards Bianca, "Wow, she was sure in a hurry. Is there an emergency somewhere?"

"Probably, but she's just running a bit late." Bianca took Maggie by the hand and led her down the hall to her office, closed the door, pushed Maggie up against it and kissed Maggie hard on the lips.

"Umm, what was that for?" Maggie asked with a big smile.

Bianca put her arm around Maggie's small waist, brushed a stray hair away from her pretty face and smiled, "I don't need reason to kiss you. Do I?"

"No, of course, but that was kind of sexy." Maggie smiled as she looked into Bianca's beautiful brown eyes, "The way you brought me in here and were so aggressive. It's not like you, but I liked it."

"I can be spontaneous, every now and then at least. Besides, I just love to kiss you." Bianca grinned as she kissed Maggie one more time before Lena stepped off the elevator and walked towards the two women.

Lena took one look at how close they were, turned towards the elevator, mumbled, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," and then stood and waited for the elevator. Bianca walked over to Lena and turned her around so she was facing her, "What's with the disappearing act? Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all." Lena said firmly, "I just don't want to keep popping in on you and Maggie like this."

"It's okay, I'm always happy to see you. I wanted to know how things were going in the Cambias trial overseas. If they can't convict him here, I sure hope they can for some of the things he's done over there."

"Well that's why I'm here." Lena said somberly, "I know this is going to come as a shock to you and everyone else, but there was an explosion at one of the police stations in Paris. It happened to be the one holding all the evidence in the case against Cambias. When we weren't unable to come up with any other evidence or any new leads, the judge dismissed every single charge against him and set him free. Just like that."

"No, that can't be. You and Juan Pablo were so sure about this. You said you had enough evidence to put him away for life. I can't believe this. My mother is going to be so upset. What about the murder's he committed here in Pine Valley? We all know he killed Carlos and Chris Stamp, so make him pay for it."

"It's not that easy Bianca. I wish it were. I really do, but Michael is nothing if not resourceful. His crimes overseas were of the business variety and although he could have got a lengthy sentence, a good lawyer could've plea bargained it down to community service. It's not a fun system of justice we have, but we will keep working on his case and won't rest until he's behind bars where he belongs."

"That's not going to help us now is it?" Bianca snapped back as she walked back over to Maggie.

"I'm sorry to be the one to bring you such bad news, but I knew you'd want to know." Lena let out a disappointed sigh and looked at her watch, "I'm going back to the office now, if you need anything or have any questions about any of this or better yet, think of anything that might help us with our investigation, please don't hesitate to call. Goodbye Bianca. It was nice seeing you again Maggie."

Both girls said goodbye and watched Lena get back on the elevator and then walked back into Bianca's office and closed the door.

Maggie held Bianca close, "I'm sorry about all this. I know this is horrible news. He's a sick man and needs to be in jail."

Bianca looked up at Maggie with such sad eyes, "I really thought it would be over. I should know better than to get my hopes up. It never works out the way I want. God, I can't believe he's free to harass my family again. He won't rest until he has destroyed Enchantment, Fusion and god knows who else might die if he's not stopped.

"I won't let him hurt you. I promise." Maggie stated emphatically, "I might not be able to help your companies, but I sure as hell can keep you safe from that sicko."

"Thank you. I know you will." Bianca said as she wiped the tears away from her face.

Simone walked into Fusion, took a quick look around and then slowly made her way into the back room. Opening her purse, she pulled out her cell and placed a call.

"Hello?"

"It's me. We need to go over the plans for tonight. Can we meet for lunch?" Simone asked as she constantly looked around to make sure she was alone.

Tad Martin flipped through his empty day planner before answering, "I guess so, I can rearrange a couple meetings and we can talk at the park if that's okay. It's right across the street from my afternoon meeting."

"Good. Do you have the information about Mia that I asked for?"

"Of course I do. It's my job and I do it quite well thank you very much."

"Excellent, this is going to be just what I needed. I'll see you in a couple hours. Thanks again Tad." Simone said with a big smile.

Greenlee, Kendall and Mia walked into the room just as she was putting her cell phone away.

Mia walked up and gave Simone a soft kiss, "Hi there, I missed you this morning. You must've been up really early. Who were you talking to?"

Simone wasn't prepared to answer that question, "Um, it was nobody. Just a wrong number. Anyway, I'm sorry I missed you this morning, but I had a doctor's appointment and wanted to get it out of the way before I went to work."

Mia's eyes lit up and her face turned white in a flash, "Is something wrong? Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine." Simone said, taking Mia by the hand and reassuring her quickly, "It was just a yearly checkup and I got a clean bill of health, so now that we have that cleared that up, how was your morning?"

"I'm glad to hear that." Mia sighed, "My morning was the same as always, except I missed seeing you and didn't know where you were, so I was a bit worried."

"I am so sorry, I should have left a note, but I forgot all about it as I was in a hurry to get there. I won't do that again. I promise." Simone said, doing her best to talk her way out of the mess she'd created.

Mia put her hands around Simone's neck and smiled at her, "Good then. I think waking up without you just showed me how much I miss you when you're not around." Mia then turned to Greenlee and Kendall. "Can we have a minute alone, please?"

"Oh, are we in the way of your little lovefest?" Kendall asked with a big smile.

"Now, now Kendall, let's not tease the lovebirds. We can listen by the door anyway." Greenlee said with a laugh as she took Kendall's hand and walked back into the main office.

"I missed you to." Simone said as she kissed Mia softly on the lips. "I hope you know I would never do anything to intentionally cause you to worry."

"I know that." Mia laughed, "I just think it's times like this that make me appreciate you even more. You make me smile in the morning when I don't feel like it. You help make getting up every day so worthwhile. I realize how much I take you for granted and just wanted to make sure you knew how much I love you."

"Oh Simone, I love you to. More than words can say." Simone said as she gazed into Mia's pretty blue eyes.

They kissed and held each other until Greenlee popped into the room, "Sorry to interrupt, but there's someone here to see Simone."

"What? Who?" Simone asked curiously.

"Why don't you come out and have a look." Greenlee said with slight smile.

Mia was as curious as Simone was and the two women followed Greenlee back into the main room. As soon as Simone made eye contact with the man standing beside Kendall, she nearly fainted.

Helping Simone regain her balance, Mia walked over to the man and introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Mia Saunders, pleased to meet you. How do you know Simone?"

Looking more than a little nervous and confused, the tall dark haired man looked over at Simone and then back at Mia, Kendall and Greenlee before he spoke, "I'm Jacob Portal, I'm Simone's husband."

Everyone in the room stood with their mouths open looking back at Jacob, including Simone, who rushed over and stood in front of him, "What did you say?"

"Well technically we're still married Simone." Jacob said with a smile as he reached into his perfectly tailored suit and pulled out a document, "I got this in the mail a couple days ago and have been trying to have it verified since. It's official, our divorce did not go through the system and well, it looks like we're still hitched. How about that?" he said with a laugh.

Mia was anything but amused by the announcement, although Kendall and Greenlee had a good snicker about it. Simone was speechless and had to take a seat as she tried to process this bombshell of an announcement.

Jacob stopped smiling and sat down beside Simone, "I didn't think you'd react like this. You didn't get married did ya?"

"No, but it doesn't mean this is any easier to take. I don't see how this could happen. I signed those papers 3 years ago. What went wrong?"

"I don't have all the answers, but my lawyers informed me that it could be as simple a clerical error. The papers were never officially filed with the state of California, so in their eyes, we are still married." Jacob continued, unable to stop smiling at the bizarre situation, "Come on now, it's not that bad is it? Oh, are you seeing someone now, is that it?"

"Yes, I'm with someone right now. What did you think, I'd become a nun after we got divorced?" Simone said sarcastically.

"Oh I knew you would never be a nun." Jacob smirked, "So who's the lucky guy?"

Mia looked over at Simone and waited patiently for her to respond.

Simone fidgeted with her top and her coffee mug and looked over at Mia and then looked back at Jacob, "Things have changed a lot since we were together. I don't have to tell you who I'm seeing."

Mia gave Simone a very nasty look and took off towards the elevator.

Jacob sat back in his chair and tried to figure out what the big secret was about who Simone was with, "So, he's a mystery man is he? That's fine, I'm not here to interfere with your new life. I hope he's treating you well though."

"Yes, I've never been happier." Simone shot back, "I think you should go now, I do have a job to do. Tell me what I have to do to get this divorce finalized."

Jacob pulled out another set of documents and handed them to Simone, "It's very simple really, you just sign these papers again and I'll file them when I get back to LA."

"Fine, I'll have our lawyers look at them and I'll send them to you when I've signed them." Simone said as she looked over the papers.

"Good then. Well, it was nice seeing you again Simone. You look as beautiful as always." Jacob stood up and walked past Kendall and Greenlee, smiled and walked towards the elevator.

After he got on, Simone got up and tossed the divorce papers across the room and let out a huge scream, kicked the garbage can and then sat back down, "This is just great. So how mad do you think Mia is?"

"Oh on a scale of 1-10, I'd say 11." Greenlee answered as she sat down beside Simone, "Why didn't you just tell him you were with Mia now? I don't understand."

Simone let out a moan and put her head in her hands and shook her head at the question, "I don't know why I didn't say anything. I guess I wanted him to think I was with some important man. Jacob was always so hung up on status and titles and I panicked. I feel horrible about it."

"Well, you should feel horrible, because you hurt Mia bigtime." Kendall added bluntly as always, "You made it look like you were ashamed to be with her. You're gonna have to do some serious apologizing and even that might not be enough."

"I know, I know, I know! I wish I could take it all back, but I can't." Simone screamed and tossed her head back, "We just had such a good little talk before this. I told her how much I loved her and then I do this and she probably doesn't know what to think. God, I can't blow it with her. I just can't. She's too important to me."

"Then get off your ass and go after her. She's probably just down crying her eyes out over coffee." Kendall said as she pulled out Simone's chair and lifted her to her feet, "Now get going before she has too much time to think about all this."

"I need to find her. I know I do. I just hope she doesn't hate me." Simone said as she ran towards the elevator.

Kendall and Greenlee walked back over to the coffee machine, filled up and then Kendall looked over at Greenlee and smiled, "You don't have any husbands in your past do ya?"

"Nope, you know about Leo and well, I'm single now and happy to be with you." Greenlee said as she leaned in a kissed Kendall softly on the lips, "Now, what about you? You don't have any husbands in your past do ya?"

"No, I'm a free agent and well, that's not really true either, I'm with you so I consider myself off the market." Kendall added with another big smile, "Now that we have that out of the way, do you think Mia will get past this?"

"I'm sure they'll get past this, I just don't know how long it will take. All depends on how well Simone explains her actions I guess. I think Mia will understand once Simone tells her why she didn't tell Jacob about them. I hope."

Kendall sat back down at her desk, turned on her computer and shook her head, "I just hope they work it out. They really are good for each other."

Erica Kane walked into the hospital to find Anita having a heated discussion with her to her sister Maria and without any thought at all, strolled up and stood right in front of the Santos sisters, "Hello ladies. I'm sorry if I'm intruding, but I just have to speak to Anita. Would you excuse us?" Erica said as she pulled Anita back into a more deserted corridor.

"Erica, now is really not a good time." Anita said as politely as she could manage under the circumstances.

"That's fine; it will only take a minute." Erica explained, "Listen, I just wanted to know how your meeting with Bianca went."

"It was good." Anita said as she continued to stare at Maria across the room. Looking back at Erica, Anita let out a sigh and put on a smile, "She's very nice and sweet and I hope we can work together on this project, but it's really up to her."

"I just knew you two would get along." Erica smiled, "So when are you seeing Bianca again?"

"I don't know, Bianca has some work to do and she said she'd call me when she had some kind of schedule worked out for the photo shoots." Anita said, her eyes lighting up as Maria turned and walked away, "I have to go Erica; it was nice talking to you again."

Erica was mildly offended as Anita took off in a flash, but quickly changed her frown to a smile as she spotted Krystal Carey step off the elevator. Adjusting her hair and checking her makeup, she confidently walked up to the new woman in town, "Hello, I'm not sure if we've met, I'm Erica Kane."

Krystal took Erica's outstretched hand and pulled her into a big southern hug, "Well, how do you do Miss Kane. I've heard a lot about you since I moved to this old town of yours. So, what can I do for ya?"

"Well you can start by letting go of me." Erica said as she pulled away from the attractive woman. After readjusting her hair and makeup yet again, Erica took a moment to study Krystal, still very uneasy around her for some reason, "I was going to ask you and your daughter to a dinner party at my house this weekend. I believe Bianca knows your daughter and I think it would be great for the two of them to get to see each other again."

"Is that right?" Krystal said slowly, walking up to Erica and then circling around her as if she were a tiger stalking it's prey, "You wouldn't be trying to fix your daughter up with Babe now would ya? Cause you do realize Babe is happily married, right?"

"Whatever made you think that? Of course that's not my intention and how dare you suggest such a thing." Erica fired back defensively, but quickly turned to hide her embarrassment at being so obvious.

Smiling at the sight of Erica's reaction, Krystal moved up and leaned over Erica's shoulder, "Oh don't be sad, I have nothing against your daughter, and I think she's a wonderful girl, but I do have plans for Babe, and JR is part of that plan, so I think I'm going to have to decline your generous offer."

Erica could feel Krystal's body pressing up against her back and as she started to become aroused, she pulled away and turned back to the Krystal, "I don't know what kind of game you think you're playing, but it's not going to work. If you don't want to be at this party that's fine by me, but that doesn't mean Babe won't come"

Krystal smiled at Erica's tactics, "That's true, Babe can make her own decisions, but if I were you I wouldn't want to start messing with my daughter. I do realize Bianca is the heir to your fortune and while it's a rather tempting offer, Babe already has a child and needs to make her marriage work."

With her eyebrow raised at the mention of the baby, Erica finally was able to go on the offensive, "Last I heard JR wasn't the father, so what do you think Jamie will think of this when he finds out the truth?"

Unable to respond, Krystal put her hand up to her mouth in shock and ran out of the room.

Erica on the other hand, smiled, reached into her purse, pulled out her cell and called Babe.

Anita chased down Maria and finally cornered her in a linen closet, "Okay, no more running. You need to tell me what happened last night with you and Brooke."

"Oh god Anita, I have no idea what's going on in my life anymore. I was just so hurt and sad I needed someone to talk to. That's all I wanted. I don't why things got out of hand."

"You need to calm down and tell me exactly what happened." Anita said as she pushed Maria's long dark hair away from her face, "I was there when you and Edmund got into that huge fight, so I know how upset you were when he told you to leave. That's all I know, until you called this morning saying you needed to talk and I know I heard Brooke's voice in the background, but I just assumed you spent the night at her place. I'm thinking there's more to this than just sleeping."

"I don't know if I can tell you. You'd never understand." Maria said as she looked for a place to run to.

"No, you aren't leaving here until you get this off your chest."

Maria knew she had to talk about it and finally took a couple deep breaths and began, "I left Wildwind and ended up running through the park and I almost knocked Brooke over as I wasn't watching where I was going. I helped her up and she could tell I was upset and well, she asked me if I wanted to talk about it so we went back to her place."

"Okay, this all sounds pretty nice so far. I'm glad she was there for you." Anita said, still not able to put two and two together.

"It was nice. That's the problem. She was so nice to me." Maria said defensively, making Anita even more confused. "I know we had our share of problems over the years, but she was just so sweet to me. She made me some coffee and then let me relax and then I finally told her about the fight I had with Edmund and after some time, we ended up talking about so many other things. After a couple hours, I was laughing and smiling again. I suddenly felt revitalized. I felt like the world was ending when I left and I soon began to realize that I wasn't such a failure after all. Maybe it wasn't me who needed to change."

Anita was shaking her head as she tried to find the problem Maria was so upset about just 6 hours earlier, "You are making this sound like the perfect night. When you called, you were shaken, upset and positively sure that you'd ruined your marriage. What aren't you telling me?"

"I'm getting to that. It's not like it's easy to talk about you know." Maria snapped, "Anyway, it was about midnight when we looked at the clock and well, Brooke got up to get the spare bedroom ready and I am not even sure what happened, but she tripped over the stool and literally fell into my arms. I caught her and our eyes met and we didn't say a word, just stared into each other's eyes for the longest time. Brooke put her hand up against my cheek and next thing I knew I was kissing her. I mean all out, full on, wild passionate kissing. And to make things worse, she is an amazing kisser. I couldn't get enough and I wasn't thinking of anything but enjoying the moment and I sure did."

"OMG." Anita shouted spontaneously, "I don't know what to say. Um, okay, well, you kissed her. That's not a huge crime. It's not good, but I mean, it was a moment of weakness and vulnerability. It's not the end of world."

"Maybe if we'd stopped at the kissing part." Maria mumbled softly as she turned away from her sister.

"Oh Maria, you didn't? Did you?" Anita asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"Yes, yes, we had sex. I spent the night making love to Brooke. Are ya happy now?" Maria screamed at her sister.

Anita didn't answer, she just put her arms around Maria and hugged her close. "I'm here for you no matter what. Whatever is going on with you we'll get through it. Okay?"

Maria nodded and then continued to cry on her sister's shoulder.

End of Chapter 7.

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