Sometimes You Have to Go Home: Chapter Two

Disclaimer remains. A bit of filler/catch-up that's necessary…. Enjoy!

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The man continued to paint as he smirked at his sister's awful paint job on the wall next to his. The wall seemed to have less paint on it than on her actual body. He couldn't resist intentionally splattering some paint on her.

"Brady!" Belle Brady shrieked as the paint hit her shirt.

"Well, you're already covered in paint," teased Brady, "A bit more never can hurt," he shrugged.

"When Shawn sees you next time, he is going to get you back for making me angry," Belle threatened, laughing.

"You're going to set your husband on me, now?" Brady flashed a look of shock. "What happened to the 'I can do anything for myself' attitude, Tink?" Brady laughed, using his nickname for his sister. He was so proud of his sister, really. She was incredibly successful in her Basic Black fashion design job while she was an amazing mother of her eight month old daughter, Meghan, and wife to Shawn, and she managed to spend time with her friends and family. He didn't know what he'd do without her.

"You're staring at me, what is it?" Belle raised her eyebrow slightly. A trait she definitely got from their father, John Black.

"I'm just amused my sister can manage to cover herself that much in green paint," Brady covered, not allowing himself to let her realize what he was thinking about. The thing was he didn't really have anything that he admired so much about Belle. Other than a successful job at Basic Black Music Department, which was added when he left Titan to return to Basic Black, he pretty much was the opposite.

"Damn it Brady. Why must you lie to me?" Belle sighed. "Because, bluntly, you suck at it." She lightly laughed, "You can't ever just let me catch you be sweet, can you?"

"What are you talking about?" Brady denied. He wasn't in the mood to get into confessing anything. It would just lead to his life, and he hated talking about his life.

Truly, his life had never been much since Chloe Lane had died. He had gotten engaged to Nicole Walker and then discovered all her lies when Victor had returned alive. It killed him that he nearly married someone so horrible and couldn't see though her act, not that he ever really loved her. She had just made it easier not to think about Chloe, and he loved not having to feel the pain of missing her. Since then, he'd been through some unsuccessful small romances but nothing worth noting and his interest in finding new woman wasn't a top priority.

"Whatever," Belle rolled her eyes as her cell phone rang. "I have to get that," Belle said taking the phone into the other room.

Brady nodded, sliding into one of the pieces of furniture he had set up in his fresh apartment so far. This would be his third apartment since moving out of the mansion just over three years ago.

"Brady," Belle said loudly as she came back into the room.

"Yeah?" Brady replied looking up.

"That was mom," Belle smiled referring to her mother and Brady's stepmother, Marlena Evans Black, "She said that Shawn called there and told her he would be there to pick Meghan up in about a half hour and if it were possible to call me and ask me to meet him earlier than expected." Belle looked down then slowly up, "So...I can't stay and finish painting after all." Belle looked at Brady with an apologetic expression.

"That's fine, its not like you contributed much anyhow," Brady joked, "But I enjoyed your company," Brady said hugging his sister goodbye.

"Haha," Belle laughed as she put her coat on, "Bye, Brady!" she smiled as she exited the door, as Brady waved. Brady got up from the chair and sighed at all the boxes in the otherwise mostly empty apartment. Essentials would come out and the rest would probably stay in them, except for one box. He walked over to one very big and extremely special box in the corner of the room. He opened it up very carefully and pulled out a picture of the only person he had ever fallen in love with, Chloe Lane, which lay on top of the boxes contents, as he let the memories of their love flow freely through him.

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R&R!