Cole hid his smile behind a look of concern. "I'll follow her, make sure she's all right."

Gregory waved him off, ignoring him. Olivia closed her eyes, leaning her head back against his shoulder and pulling in his strength. She gave herself just long enough to pull herself together before she turned around, taking his hand in hers.

"I'm going to pay the waiter darling."

Gregory continued staring at the doorway Caitlin had just disappeared through. His shoulders were stone as she brushed her hand across them. The wine had seeped into his jacket, marring it like the blood stains Caitlin alluded to. He didn't seem to care, he didn't even seem to notice.

Olivia had to leave him standing by the mess of their table to track down their waiter. He didn't say a word as she wrote out the check. She caught his eyes running over the wine drying on the expensive satin of her dress. "First time I've worn it."

The waiter eyed the fabric and shook his head sadly. "It's a real shame. It's a beautiful dress."

Closing her purse, she sighed heavily. "Hopefully it'll be the only thing that was ruined tonight."

Gregory was gone when she walked past the mess at their table. When she returned all the conversations in the room ground to a halt again. She kept her head up as she walked out of Grenadines alone. As she reached the door, Olivia could hear the whispers start. Something would have to be done to quiet the gossip. Damage control was going to be complicated this time.

Their baby had been pulled out of the secrecy they had tried to cloak it in. Some of the magic was gone with it. Wanted suddenly to apologize for the rude introduction, "You should be celebrated." She whispered, walking towards the car. "No matter what Caitlin says."

Gregory was sitting on the hood of the new blue Jaguar, feet on the bumper and elbows balanced on his knees. His head was in his hands. Olivia paused next to him, leaning back against the car and resting her hand on the back of his head. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Lifting his head, he looked at her with confusion. "I'd think you knew."

Her fingers ran inside his collar, warm and gentle. "Oh I know what you're thinking. I'm just wondering if you'd like to talk about it."

He ran his hand through his hair, but reached for her with the other arm. "Now?"

Olivia slid up on the hood of the car next to him, slipping her feet out of her heels and letting them drop to the pavement. "Darling, this car's not going anywhere until you get in it."

"It's a good point." Hugging her to his side with one arm, he agreed with a tired sigh. "Don't know where to go from here."

Dropping her head to his shoulder reminding her how much fragility he hid behind his wall of strength. "I was thinking we'd go home."

Gregory toyed with her fingers, trying not to think of Caitlin's Deschanel bracelet and the smug young man who bought it for her. "Simple solution Liv."

She fidgeted with the folds of her dress, rearranging them around her ankles. "What else can we do? Caitlin's not coming home any time soon and even if we did, neither of us know what to say to her. I don't even know how she got so angry."

"Maybe we just haven't been listening." He pointed out softly as he looked down at the pavement. "I've been sitting out here, thinking, trying to figure out where we wrong with her. What we did that made her so-"

Olivia ran her finger down his cheek. "Shh- We'll have plenty of time to worry about what we've done. Whatever it was, it took us twenty years to do it. We certainly won't undo it tonight." Kissing his cheek, she slid off the hood of the Jaguar. "Darling, let's go home."

When she bent her knees to pick up her shoes, Gregory stopped her and retrieved them instead. "You're right. There's nothing we can do tonight."

Taking the shoes from him, Olivia tucked them into her hand, sighing as she closed her eyes for a moment. "Except go home and figure out what we're going to to do about the baby."

"What about the baby?" Gregory grabbed her arm, suddenly concerned. "Is the baby all right?"

Her eyes snapped back open, and she just looked at him for a beat. The dead space only enraged his concern. "Olivia?"

Quieting the demand in his tone, Olivia removed his hand from her arm and replaced it on her belly, calming his misunderstanding. "He's perfect."

Gregory's breath slipped out of his chest in relief and she started to laugh as he kissed her forehead.

"But I think his parents definitely need to go home." Olivia added as she reached into his suit pocket for the car keys. Letting him kiss her as she tucked the keys into his hand. "We'll deal with his sister later. When she's calmed down a little. Okay?"

A thousand fractured protests died when he got lost in the promise of her eyes and forgot all about them. "Okay."

Opening the front door made enough noise to shock the two young people on the sofa away from each other. Instead of blushing, Ethan and Phebe started to laugh as Olivia flipped the lights on. Gregory shut the door and turned around to see the imperious eye she was giving the two youngsters.

"Glad you've been making yourself at home." She teased dryly as Gregory's hand found her lower back. Looking over the young Baxter boy and his paramour, she was envious the innocence of their rumpled hair. Spending the night making out of the sofa in the darkened living room would have been far superior to the dinner theater they'd put on for the society of Sunset Beach.

Phebe's grin was entirely unapologetic. "How was Grenadines?"

"And what happened to your dress?" Ethan added, scooting closer to the young woman, making room on the sofa. Gregory watched his wife drop her purse onto the coffee table and sink into the sofa next to the younger man. Amazingly, Olivia smiled sadly as she looked down at the scattered stains of red across her chest and stomach.

"We had a bit of a heated discussion with Caitlin."

Leaving Olivia to be social with the two young people, Gregory paced into the study. He wanted to hear the life story of this "Julian Deschanel" from someone much more reliable then AJ's supposed son. Closing his fingers tightly around the receiver, he paused before dialing. No matter what Olivia believed, he wanted to call Caitlin and force her home to explain herself. Drag her into his study and force tell him what in the world she was thinking.

She wasn't answering her cellular phone and she hadn't given him the number for that Deschanel's apartment. He could call the front desk at the Lichfield, but he didn't want to talk to someone- he wanted Caitlin. He wanted to wring her neck.

The knock on the door reminded him that he wasn't alone in the house. "I'll be done in a moment darling. Why don't you get a cup of tea?"

The cough that interrupted him was decidedly male, and Gregory looked up from his desk in surprise. "Your 'darling' is out on the terrace." Ethan replied with an amused grin. "My darling and I are going for a walk down to the Deep, do you need anything before we go?"

Gregory set down the phone, raising an eyebrow at Ethan's jest. "What would Olivia and I need from you?"

"Culinary advice?" Ethan offered, pointing to the wine stain on his shirt. "Whites are better for cooking, cause less of a stain too."

Gregory's stone face insisted the wine had a story behind it. "You should pass that on to my daughter."

Folding his arms made Ethan look the spitting image of his father. "Olivia mentioned an argument."

"A very public argument that's going to be extraordinarily frustrating to deal with." Shuffling the papers on his desk did nothing to alleviate his bitterness and would probably only serve to further infuriate him when Gregory realized how disorganized he had made it.

"It can wait." Phebe piped up, barely suppressing a giggle as she snuck in to ambush Ethan. "Whatever it is, the extraordinary beauty of the stars tonight is more important."

Watching her kiss Ethan's cheek in that impulsive way of youth reminded him of the way a certain young woman had made him smile like that once, many years ago.

"We're going to head out now." As he slipped his arm around Phebe's waist, she whispered something that made him laugh in surprise. "I highly recommend the terrace." He finished with a very deliberate wink.

They made their escape through the front door, leaving Gregory to muse on the motivations of the younger generation. Curiosity led him out on to the terrace, where the stars glimmered overhead. Failing to see anything special about the night sky in that moment, he followed the steps down to the pool. Olivia sat on the edge, dangling her feet in the water lazily. She'd taken the time to change, and the red silk dressing gown she wore was the one he'd brought back from their trip to Thailand.

The red made her stand out against the blue light radiating up from the pool like a night-blossoming orchid, The sound of his feet against the stone made her turn her head, and the dark curls of her hair tumbled over her shoulder.

Olivia's brilliant smile made up for the lackluster appearance of the stars. "I remember how excited you were when we moved into the house. How thrilling it was for you that we had the pool in addition to the ocean. You were going to teach our children how to swim, dive and do somersaults."

He sat on the edge next to her, starting to undo the laces of his shoes. "And you looked at me as if you were going to cry because you didn't know how to swim."

"I was terrified of the water." She giggled as he tucked his socks into his shoes and set them aside. "I'd only been in a pool once before and it was awful. I got the water in my eyes and I cried." Snuggling into his side, she rested her chin on his shoulder. "But you promised you could teach me to swim without once making me cry. And you did."

"Too bad I couldn't extend that promise to the other parts of your life." The silk slid easily across her knee when as he touched her thigh. "You've cried too much over me Liv."

Olivia's hand made its home over his heart. "I wouldn't trade it for the world."

"You wouldn't want to take away all the times I hurt you if you could?" Capturing her hand, Gregory noticed that she had left her engagement ring upstairs.

"I don't know if i could selectively change my life like that." Her foot broke the smooth surface of the water. "I think taking away the fights, the yelling and the times I cried myself to sleep, would take away the times you kissed me in the morning and made me forget all about the night before. Your lips and your smile and the way you look at me when you..."

She trailed off, pulling her hand back and dropping it in her lap.

"When I what?" He asked curiously, wondering what she was going to add. Gregory's interest grew when she stood up, allowing him a view of her calves and ankles.

Olivia dodged the question, untying the knot in her belt. "I think I'm going to go for a swim. Care to join me?"

The offer was tempting in more ways then he wanted to admit and Gregory was certain she knew. "When I what Liv?"

The red silk flowed off her shoulders like the ocean over a stone. It pooled at her feet, allowing him a view of her nude body in the soft light from the pool. "That look." She gestured him up to his feet, using his tie to guide him. "The look you get in your eyes when you want me."

"The look you have right now." Olivia purred as his expression became one she preferred to the bitterness he'd been carrying since dinner.

Gregory laughed, feeling a new lightness in his chest. He dropped his suit jacket to the terrace next to her robe, the night air had suddenly gotten a good deal warmer. "Don't you feel a little exposed?"

She ran her eyes over her own body briefly, before grinning suggestively at him as she reached for the buttons of his shirt. "I do have the oddest feeling I forgot something."

Working in unison, they freed him from his shirt and added it to the growing pile on the stone. He closed his hands over the unbelievably soft skin of her hips, pulling her closer. "It can't be important, you look-" Without anything to inhibit his progress, Gregory's hand moved up to her breast, relishing the skin he traversed on his way. "Incredible."

"Not pregnant?" His lips burned into the sweet spot at the base of her neck, and Olivia's words were nearly lost in her sigh of anticipation.

As her fingers worked nimbly on his belt buckle, Gregory studied the curves of her fantastically nude body. Her stomach was still unchanged, but that change would certainly come in time. He stepped out of his trousers without taking his eyes off of her. A curious eye on the beach might get more then they bargained for tonight, but all he wanted to think about was her.

And Olivia knew it. She was using the best method she knew to take his mind off Caitlin and he couldn't be more grateful as she followed the steps into the pool. Cupping her breasts in her hands, she looked like a goddess in the water.

Gregory circled to the deep end, diving in precisely and swimming with powerful strokes to break the surface near her. Clearing the water from his face, he kissed her before answering her question. "These are different." He explained with a nod of his head towards her cleavage.

Giggling softly, she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, weightless in the water. "I could have told you that, they are always the first thing to feel pregnant." Nibbling his bottom lip communicated her willingness to be done with talking.

"And you are." He whispered in quiet amazement. "I keep reminding myself that this is really happening."

Tracing a slow line from his chin to his ear, Olivia's whisper was low and sweet. "Oh, it is, trust me, it is very, very real all too often."

Gregory laughed at the sardonic edge to her voice. "I'll make it up to you, Liv." The heat of his breath against her neck was a promise.