Author's note: First off, to any Tess/Nash fans who are reading this, I'm completely with you, but when I started this back in June we hadn't even met Nash yet and Tess was a lot less likeable. I'm continuing this the way I had initially planned, because I feel like I have enough complications worked into the story so far, if I add any more this will never end…

Second off, thank everyone so much for the fabulous feedback. I really can't believe you're still reading.

In the last chapter…

"Been a long time," Cristian said keeping his eyes trained on the painting as John stopped in front of his cell.

John cleared his throat. "We have to tell her."

And elsewhere...

Natalie nodded as Michael and Rex wordlessly switched places. Natalie looked at Michael cautiously over her mug. Michael stared at her uncomfortably for a moment and then finally said, "So is it mine?"

Natalie looked back at Michael unflinching, trying to hold a poker face. Perhaps that was the problem; maybe she was too calm to be believable as she said, "No."

Michael didn't waiver either, "Are you sure?"

She tried to tell him she was, that this was neither his problem nor his business, but for some reason she couldn't force herself to say it. "Reasonably," was the best she finally managed.

"Reasonably?" he repeated slowly, "that would mean 'no,' wouldn't it."

"No," she said, "it means 'almost positive.'"

"How?" he pressed.

Natalie took a deep breath and began explaining in a hushed, desperate tone, "Look I've been going over this in my head and I was up all last night reading everything I could find on-line, looking at calendars... If it was yours I would be almost seven weeks-"

Michael had already done the math. "Six and a half," he agreed.

"And I don't think I'm that far along. Also, I've had my period since then-"

"When?"

Her eyes widened slightly at the unexpected personal question. "Like the week after."

"Was it normal or was it-"

"Michael," she hissed, "there are biological details I'm not comfortable going into."

"I'm a doctor, Natalie," he said rolling his eyes. "Some women have false periods particularly during the first month of pregnancy, they're usually lighter-"

"I know," she said splashing some of her tea with a wild jerk of her hands, "but I don't think that's what it was."

"But you're not sure?" he said.

"No," she conceded biting her lip.

"So what am I supposed to do with that?" Michael said clinching his hands into fists but trying to remain calm.

"Nothing," she said.

"Natalie, that could be my baby you're carrying," he whispered, "you think I can just ignore that."

"For now," she instructed him.

"For now?"

"Look," she said placing both hands palm down on the table as if bracing herself, "like I said, I've been doing my homework. I'll have my first ultrasound in a few weeks and that should tell us for sure."

Michael shook his head, "Ultrasounds in the first trimester have a margin of error of about a week."

"That should be enough," she explained, "if it's yours we know I would have to be about seven weeks; if it's not yours then I know when my last period was and if I conceived mid cycle like your supposed to I would only be about three or four. It's a big enough difference that we should be able to tell."

Michael considered this for a moment. "Maybe," he said, "so what, in the meantime I pretend like there's nothing going on?"

"Yes," she said.

"I don't think I can," he said.

"Look Michael, I hate to put you in this position, but if this is John's baby then we have enough to deal with without him finding out I slept with you," she pleaded, "I promise you that if the ultrasound shows that it's yours, or if there's any doubt at all, I will tell him, but please, there is no reason he needs to know yet."

"How many times are we gonna have this conversation McBain?" Cristian asked training his eyes once more on his work.

"She needs to know," John reiterated.

"We've been through this," Cris continued calmly slashing his brush across the canvas, making minute tilts of his head to examine it from different angles.

"Things have changed," John said, shoving his hands in his pockets, praying Cris wouldn't ask for further explanation.

"Have they?" he asked turning around completely for the first time but not quite dropping the zen like calm that painting seemed to have given him. "Am I no longer brainwashed and programmed to kill on command? Did I not kill Tico Santi? Am I not in jail? What's changed?"

"I did some research," John explained, "A case could be made... not a particularly strong one, but a case could be made that Natalie's still married to you."

"Who'd be trying to make a case?" Cristian turning away again, "nobody knows who I am. Not like I'm about to start asking for alimony payments."

It was so tempting just to agree, but he couldn't, not this time. "It just puts her in a precarious legal situation."

Cristian left the painting and calmly walked closer to John. For the first time John was sure that the calm was an act--well not quite an act, but it was a forced calm. He was working hard to hold something back.

"Is Natalie planning on getting married again?" he asked.

No, she'd made that clear enough. John shook his head.

"Then why is this a big deal all of a sudden?" Cris asked.

"Natalie's pregnant," he finally admitted looking right into Cristian's eyes. He figured Cristian deserved at least that much respect from the man who was sleeping with his wife.

Cristian took a deep breath making the same tiny tilts of his head that he'd made while studying the painting as he processed this information. "It's yours?" he asked in a voice which wavered slightly, as though he were having a hard time maintaining his constructed calm.

John didn't confirm it—he sensed it was unnecessary. "You don't seem surprised."

Cristian walked away. "Yeah well, like I told you the day you arrested me, I saw the way you looked at her. Hell, I saw the way she looked at you. If I'd known that I was really Cristian Vega, Llanview might have had a whole different murder on their hands."

"I'm sorry," he said, knowing it was nothing like adequate to make up for the way he'd benefited from Cristian's pain.

Cristian shook his head. "I told her to move on. I told her there was already someone in her life that loved her, that I thought he could make her happy. I can't blame either one of you for doing what I told you to."

"But you see why we have to tell her now?" John said more than asked.

Cristian glared at him for the first time as he lay his brush down on the easel tray. "Yeah, 'cause it's a great idea to lay that kind of stress on a pregnant woman. Always."

"Natalie's stronger than either of us give her credit for sometimes," he said, "she'll get through it."

"Even if she does she may not ever forgive you," Cristian said, "is this so important to you that you're willing to risk losing her?"

It wasn't a risk he wanted to take, but he didn't see any other way. "I have to," he said, "I don't want my child to start their life out surrounded by this kind of lie."

"All right," Michael said, "so not to sound selfish, but you have this all worked out from your perspective and John's perspective, but what about me? I'm just supposed to ignore the fact that I might be a father in a few months?"

Natalie's cell phone rang; she answered it without taking wary eyes off of Michael.

"Hello?"

"Natalie, it's Antonio," there was urgency in his voice and she could tell from the rhythm of his breathing that he was rushing around wherever he was. "Have you seen Jess?"

"No," Natalie responded realizing immediately why he was so concerned, "what happened?"

"I woke up and she was gone," he said, "she must have snuck out when I was asleep."

"So you think-"

"Tess knows we were leaving for Switzerland tomorrow. She's desperate. She knows she doesn't have much longer."

"Do you have any idea where she would go?" Natalie said gathering her things.

"No," Antonio said, "but she's probably looking to head out of town. Look, she's going to need money-"

"I could check with the bank," she volunteered.

"I already have a contact at the bank looking out for her, but I don't expect her to show. She's smart; she'll know how easy she is to track. I need you to go to Llanfair, there's a lot of valuables there-"

"On my way," she said, "call me if anything changes." She hung up the phone and headed towards the door.

"What's going on?" Michael asked following her.

"I gotta go," she explained quickly, "It's Jessica."

"What happened?" he asked remembering Jessica's recent suicide attempt.

"I can't talk about it," she said pushing open the door, "but if you see her anywhere, call me. And keep her with you."

When she arrived at Llanfair the front door was cracked open; the drawers of the table in the entry way were thrown open. Tess had definitely been there. Natalie stepped inside cautiously; not knowing whether her twin's alter was still around or not. A quick check of the downstairs revealed that the rest of the house had been similarly ransacked, but that no one was around. Climbing up the back staircase she heard someone moving in one of the bedrooms. She crept down the hall until she reached her mother's bedroom door. Jessica… no, not Jessica, Tess was rummaging through the drawers of their mother's dresser. Natalie must have made some sort of sound because at that moment she looked up and seeing her there froze.

"Tess?" Natalie asked, positioning herself so she was blocking the door.

Tess straightened up defiantly. "Yeah."

"Antonio has people out looking for you," Natalie said softly. It was awkward, talking to this person who looked like her sister, but she knew was decidedly not. And yet, was, at least in part.

"I know," Tess said, "so he can drag me off to Europe and kill me."

"It's not like that," Natalie said.

"It's exactly like that. They want to rip me out of Jessica's head and destroy me. They just put a nice gloss on it so no one has to call it murder. But that's what it is."

"Your sick," Natalie tried to reason, "they just want to help you."

"Help Jessica."

"You're the same person."

Tess shook her head, "We're really not." Tess walked to the door and tried to push past her; Natalie stopped her with a hand on each shoulder. Tess stepped back slightly and studied Natalie's face. "Let me go," she growled.

"I can't do that," Natalie said shaking her head.

Tess tried to get by her again and succeeded in making it through the door before Natalie caught her arm and stopped her. She whirled around. "You really don't want to get into a tussle with me, sweetie," she said.

"I've been in them with Jessica before," Natalie said holding tightly to the arm, "When I first came to town. I generally came out on the better end."

"Yeah well that was Jessica, not me," Tess said, "and back then you didn't have to worry about your little bun in the oven."

Natalie hoped she managed not to react to the last statement; that Tess wouldn't realize that she might back down from a fight to protect her baby. She'd called Antonio when she realized Tess had been there. He should be on his way; she just had to stall. "I'm not going to let you take off to do God knows what in my sister's body."

"Oh, I think you are," Tess said. "Tell me; does Johnny boy know yet that that baby's just as likely his brother's as his? Yeah, that was me you ran into that night, by the way."

"I figured that out," Natalie said, still holding on to Tess as she tried to pull her way down the hall.

"Well if you don't want me to tell him, I suggest that you let me go and-"

"If I don't let you go you're not going to have the opportunity to tell him," Natalie countered.

Tess laughed, "You have no idea how resourceful I can be."

"Well that's what Jessica told me," a voice behind Tess said suddenly, "but I have to admit I didn't think you'd be dumb enough to come here of all places."

Tess and Natalie both looked to see Todd Manning standing at the other end of the hallway. If possible, Tess's scowl deepened. "How did you-?"

He shrugged, "I've been having you followed since that whole thing with the window." He pantomimed a figure falling with one hand. "They called to tell me that you were acting kind of funny today, so I came to check it out. So, sorry, no escape. It's over Tess."

"You bastard," Tess spat.

"I am," Todd admitted, "but there's really no need to bring that up now-"

Tess turned suddenly. Relieved by her uncle's arrival, Natalie had relaxed slightly; Tess took advantage of this by punching her hard with her free hand. Natalie let go of Tess and staggered back against the wall as Tess rushed past her. Todd caught up with her on the stairs and grabbed her from behind. She squirmed and struggled to get free of him, but he held her tightly.

She screamed, "Let me go! You have no right!"

"It's over," Todd said staggering down the stairs with her, "just give it up."

"Go to hell!" she yelled kicking at him with all her might.

Antonio walked in the front door at that moment and took in the situation. "Jessica!" he called in alarm.

"Jessica's not here right now," Tess growled, "maybe you should try back later."

"Jess, honey, I know you're in there," he said walking closer to her and speaking in a soothing tone as Todd held firmly to her upper arms. "I'm here."

"No," Tess said, though she didn't seem to be talking to either Antonio or Todd.

"Fight her, Jessica," Antonio continued, "I know you can do it."

"NO!" Tess screamed one final time then fell limp in Todd's arms. Cautiously Todd lowered her down to a slumped over seated position on one of the lower stairs.

"Jess?" he asked the blinking girl.

"Uncle Todd?" she asked in confusion. She looked around her at the house, at Antonio, at Natalie slowly descending the stairs. "What happened?"

"Tess made one last escape attempt," Antonio explained.

"How you let that happen, we'll discuss later," Todd said glaring at him.

"Don't start," Jessica pleaded, "Antonio's done everything he could to protect me." She caught sight of the red spot that had appeared on Natalie's cheek, "Natalie, oh my god!"

Natalie shrugged, "Tess swings quite a nasty punch."

"Are you okay?" Jessica asked with a glance down at Natalie's stomach, which while it was still flat conveyed clearly the meaning that she wanted to make sure the baby was okay.

"Fine," Natalie assured her, "don't worry about it."

After he had begrudgingly let Antonio leave with Jessica, Todd lingered awkwardly while Natalie attempted to put the house back in order.

"So I overheard a bit of the conversation between you and Tess as I was coming up the stairs," he said finally. "Are you…?" he made a gesture like a woman's full stomach as if he didn't want to actually say the words.

"Yes," Natalie said brusquely. Todd wasn't exactly who she wanted to talk this over with.

He sighed. "Your mother's going to kill me," he said. "She asked me to look out for you girls while she was away and one of you gets committed and the other gets knocked up."

"Sorry if this is an inconvenience to you," she said.

"I'll live," he said with a shrug, "Um… do I also gather from what she said that you don't know who the father is?"

"Not for sure," she said uneasily.

"Yeah, don't tell your mom that," he suggested, "she's not generally the kind of person who gets herself into situations like that so she tends to be less understanding when other people do."

"I'll keep that in mind," she said hoping silently for the conversation to end. It had been a long couple of days and all she wanted to do was curl up in bed. She wasn't really in the mood for chatting about her problems with an uncle she'd never been close to.

"So… you're involved with one of these guys, that cop, right?"

Natalie nodded.

"Well, your mother would tell you different, but if you want my advice, don't tell him."

"What if someone else does?" she asked. She was surprised to find herself asking for advice; she hadn't thought she wanted any.

"Who would? Oh, the other guy. You think he might?"

"He might," she said.

"Well, if you tell me who it is I can find a way to lean on him for you," he offered.

Natalie smiled in spite of herself realizing that this truly was Todd's idea of helping out a family member. "No thanks," she said.

"Okay, well if you-"

Natalie's ringing cell phone interrupted a second conversation for the day. She looked at the caller ID; it was John. "Hello?" she said.

"Hey, it's me. How are you doing?"

"Okay," she said. It wasn't quite true, but she didn't feel like going into details over the phone, especially when she couldn't tell him half of the details and not really with Todd standing there.

"Listen, there's something we have to do tomorrow," he said.

"What?" she asked.

He hesitated. "I can't really tell you. I just wanted you to know that I told Bo we wouldn't be in."

"Okay," she said. Ordinarily she would have resented him doing something like that without talking to her first, but he sounded so serious about whatever this was that she didn't want to press the issue. She had a sudden sense of foreboding that this was not going to be pleasant.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm at my mom's," she said.

Finally he must have realized from the tone of her voice that something was wrong. "What's going on?" he asked with concern.

"Nothing," she said finding herself fighting back tears and trying not to let her uncle see, "it's just been a long day."

"I'm on my way over," he said.

"No," she protested, "I'll come to your place."

"You okay to drive?" he asked.

"Yeah," she insisted, "I'll see you in a little bit."

When John opened the door and saw the purplish bruise that was starting to form on her cheek his eyes widened in alarm quickly shifting to anger. "Who did this?" he asked fingering it gently.

"Jessica," Natalie said as she walked in.

"Jessica?" he asked not understanding.

"It's a very long story," she said sounding drained, "And I can't really talk about it."

"But you're okay?" he asked brushing a stray lock of hair from her face.

She wrapped her arms around him suddenly and buried her face in his shoulder, "I'm feeling better now."

And so he held her through the night, letting her cry out whatever had happened that she couldn't tell him about. He didn't push her to talk, knowing he had no right to. He didn't sleep, dreading the next day. There was no way for him to spare her what she was going to go through tomorrow; nothing he could do. But for tonight, he could hold her, and pretend just for a little while that things were going to be okay.

To be continued.