"This test is important mom." Caitlin insisted again as she dropped her books on the table with a thud. "I don't see how either of you can sleep at night without being sure, absolutely sure, that everything is all right with the baby."
Olivia fidgeted with her necklace, an amber pendant that nestled in the vee of the line of her wrap-around black shirt. Out of all the clothes in her closet, this black shirt and three other blouses still fit without stretching or pinching. The shopping trip she'd been discussing with Gregory had been rescheduled yet again so he could deal with AJ. "It's not that simple darling. There are risks involved with an amnio, risks your father and I still aren't entirely comfortable with."
Caitlin set aside her journalism text with a heavy sigh and balanced her chin on her hand. "Like what mom? What kind of risks? What could outweigh knowing that the baby is healthy?"
Biting her lip, Olivia's hand moved nervously as she tried to explain. "An amniocentesis can cause a miscarriage, it's already later in my pregnancy then the test is usually performed. If we intended to do one, Roger said we should have done it weeks ago-"
Smiling in false sympathy, Caitlin swallowed her reply that miscarriage would be the best thing to possibly happen to this family. "Daddy will be with you won't he? And you trust Roger. I think you're just not being honest with yourself." Getting up from her seat at the table, she walked to stand beside her mother. "Cole's been hunting you down. He poisoned you and daddy had to take you away to that clinic. Aren't you worried about this baby's well-being at all?"
"Of course I'm worried!" Olivia pushed away Caitlin's hand violently. "It's all I think about." Her painfully nervous laugh was nearly a sob. "I'm forty-three years old and I already have two, wonderful children. Maybe it's just greed that makes me want this baby so much- but I do-" Her cool fingers brushed her daughter's cheek. "More then I've ever wanted anything and I know- I know, your father feels the same way."
"That's exactly why you need to have this test!" She took her mother's hand and tried not to shudder as she held it. "Look, I'll drop you off at the hospital on my way to class, you can call daddy and have him meet you. That way you can make sure your baby is healthy. Come on mom, no more arguing. Daddy will be there, and you'll be fine."
The poorly concealed fear in her mother's eyes was oddly disconcerting. Caitlin hadn't felt anything for such a long time that the sensation of pity was entirely foreign to her. "I don't mean to pressure you, but I think this test is important. If something's wrong with the baby you and daddy need to know about it now before-"
Olivia felt something icy form in her chest, but her daughter finished the horrible thought. "Before it's too late. If you find out now you might still be able to do something."
While Olivia thought about surgical procedures and shuddered internally, Caitlin imagined her parents coming home and explaining that something was terribly wrong with the baby. There would be no way to save it, no medical miracle, this time her parents would have to just get rid of it and let their lives go back to normal. The way things were before it came to ruin everything. Before her parents loved it more than her. Before it could take anything else away from her.
Thinking about the past gave Caitlin a genuine smile. "Everything is going to be great mom. You'll see."
Gregory was packing up his briefcase to go home for the day. He'd been debating with Olivia the necessity of this test Caitlin wanted her to get done of the baby, and he wanted to be there to support her. Though he appreciated Caitlin's involvement with new baby, especially after the rocky start she'd had with the news, she was headstrong, pushing ideas onto her mother that Olivia didn't feel comfortable with.
Telling himself that he had to rush home to be involved with Olivia's decision was more comfortable than admitting to himself that he just wanted to be home as soon as possible. With her at the radio station all morning, he hadn't even seen her since breakfast. Even though Gregory knew she was home with Caitlin, he couldn't shake the feeling that he needed to be there. As he clicked the lock shut on his briefcase, the door to his office opened. "That'll be all for the day Emily, thank you."
A male voice laughed softly and Gregory looked up in surprise. Expecting Ben Evans, or even Roger, he was surprised and immediately angered by the smug grin of AJ Deschanel. "Sorry Gregory, Emily said I could show myself in."
Without Olivia present, he had no reason to temper his dislike. "You do have a knack for turning up uninvited."
AJ shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets as he sized up his rival. Gregory had aged well, time adding a distinction to his features that accentuated his predator nature. Was that what Olivia loved about him? The wild heart trapped within the icy control and the passion that ruled him. Life with Gregory was certainly never dull, though he expected from what he knew of the man that it was also never easy.
Maybe she was just stubborn, dedicating herself to a man who could never show her the kind of affection she needed. "Your secretary was very accommodating." AJ explained with a grin as he helped himself to a chair.
"Emily is young and unfortunately not much of a judge of character." Gregory remained standing, briefcase resting on his desk.
Sensing Gregory's hurry, AJ made no effort to speak his mind, or explain what he was doing in the Liberty Building.
After a few moments of the silent treatment, Gregory conceded. "Do you require something in particular? I'd really like to be getting home to my wife."
"Is poor Olivia still not feeling well?" AJ's concerned tone, hid the sting that came from being reminded that Olivia was, at the moment, still Gregory's wife. Something the other man never missed a chance to remind him.
Gregory reopened his briefcase and shuffled his papers thoughtfully, as if he was looking for something. "Oh she's fine, just a little run down. She is nearly twenty weeks pregnant. Here we are-" He lifted up a photocopy of Olivia's latest ultrasound and handed it to AJ with a proud smile. "That's an old one, from a few weeks back, but we have another appointment on Friday."
AJ looked it over with concealed disgust. It was a waste, the life-giving ability of Olivia's body was squandered on Gregory. The man who could never appreciate her. Never know how lucky he was to have won her so many years ago, that luck was about the change. "Olivia must be thrilled." He moved to hand back the grainy picture of the new Richards baby, but Gregory waved him off.
"Keep it, I have the original right here." He patted his breast pocket with a smile. "We both are. Having a child together- it's an amazing feeling, when you see the face of the baby you share with the woman you love. To know something as wonderful as a child was born out of your love for each other." Gregory's eyes softened with emotion, and he sat on the edge of the desk, smiling gently. "I'm sure you feel the same way about Julian."
AJ tightened his jaw, fantasizing about knocking the smug look of Gregory's face. "Julian's mother abandoned him. I didn't know he existed until she dumped him at my flat in Monte Carlo."
Gregory clucked his tongue in mock sympathy. "That must have been terrible for you." He folded his arms over his chest thoughtfully. "I know I wasn't present when Caitlin and Sean were born and that's always haunted me, but times have changed. This baby is my chance to be at Olivia's side for every moment, every step as our baby comes into the world."
He touched his wedding ring, letting AJ catch the flash of it in the light. "I think it's the best gift she's ever given me." Gregory straightened his jacket and brought himself back from his reverie. "But I'm sure you didn't come here to hear about my family."
"Oh no." AJ replied with a smile as he stood up and extended a hand. "I came to tell you how excited I am to be working with you on the East Chesterfield Medical Center project. It's really going to be a pleasure."
After the third time Gregory didn't pick up his cellular phone, Olivia gave up and left a message. "Darling, Caitlin's just dropped me off at the hospital, we've decided to do that test we talked about. Roger's going to wait awhile, but I'd really like you to be here when we do this."
Olivia snapped her cell shut and tucked it into her purse. The exam room was empty, and thankfully she hadn't been asked to undress. The front desk knew where she was, Roger had personally vouched for the ultrasound technician he was bringing along to do the test. Everything was going to be fine, but her hands were trembling.
Gregory was in such a hurry to get home to his wife, that he didn't bother to pack up his things. He just grabbed his briefcase and left. Forgetting entirely about his cellular phone, which rang a few minutes after the office door had been locked. It rang again while he was driving home. The third time it rang through, Gregory was opening the door of his empty house.
"Olivia?" He glanced down at his watch, Caitlin would be at her late journalism class by now. After a few moments spent in his lonely living room, he burst into the kitchen in search of her and found a note from Rose, who was at the grocery store and would return inside the hour. Had Caitlin talked her into the test after all?
Cole felt like himself again now that he had dyed his hair back to its normal deep shade of black. It just didn't seem right to come after Olivia personally in the guise of someone else. It had been set up so beautifully too. The amniocentesis was a window of opportunity he just couldn't past up. The test itself was incredibly delicate, the risk associated were high.
He smoothed the front of his suit and practiced his best smile for the nurse at the front desk "Hello there-" Cole paused to read her name tag. "Ashley, I'm afraid I was supposed to meet my wife and I'm running a bit late- her name is Olivia Richards, she's here for an amniocentesis."
The young receptionist blushed under his intense gaze. Having a baby with a man like that would really be something. She typed the name into the computer and waited for the record to pop onto the screen. "Here it is, Olivia Richards is in radiology, second floor, just down the hall. She's been waiting for you."
"That's my wife for you." He assured her with a wink. "Thanks again." Cole started down the hallway and turned around with that same winning smile. "Oh, by the way, would you call up to Dr. Baxter's office and tell him Gregory Richards is here, that way my poor wife won't have to wait too long to get started."
Roger had the habit of humming to himself while he worked. It gave Olivia something to concentrate on while she tried to ignore the dangerous looking needle they were carefully sticking into her stomach. Thanks to the anesthetic, she didn't feel a thing, just an odd feeling of pressure as they drew the fluid out of her womb.
"When did Gregory say he'd get here?" She asked softly as she tried to relax her hands.
"Ashley at the front desk called about a few minutes ago love, he should be right up." Roger set the needle down on a sterile tray and started the pressure bandage, just to the right of her navel. "Missed all the fun too." He admired his work for a moment and pulled down her shirt over the bandage. "This is going to be sore for awhile, and you have to stay here and hold still for at least half an hour."
"Okay." Olivia nodded slightly as she reached down tentatively to touch the bandage. "Everything went all right?"
"Stellar love, just stellar." Roger nodded to his technician as she left with the needle and the precious amniotic fluid. "I'm going to run down to radiology and get some of these new ultrasounds developed for you and your darling to stick up on the fridge."
The corner of her mouth twitched in amusement when she pictured Gregory's briefcase and the assortment of ultrasound photos he kept there. "He'll like that."
"Be right back, just stay put. I'm sure Gregory will be here in a moment." The door to the exam room clicked shut behind Roger and Olivia closed her eyes. The exam room was quiet, and her mind wandered. Sean's last letter mentioned him making it home for a long weekend in November. Caitlin was talking about an anniversary party and it would be wonderful to have her whole family together. If only for a weekend.
Cole watched as Roger's back disappeared down the hallway. As soon as he was around the corner, he walked confidently down to the radiology department, ducked in, and smiled to the attendant at the front desk. Olivia was in the back corner, in one of the conveniently sound dampened ultrasound rooms. He turned the knob slowly, not wanting to disturb her until it was too late for anyone to hear her.
Olivia's eyes were closed, her hands folded neatly over the gently swell of her belly. Her hair curled out from under her head on the paper-covered pillow. Without even making her open her eyes, Cole turned and locked the door. He even took the additional precaution of taking the chair from the corner and propping it under the knob.
Then he advanced on his victim, resting his hand over her smaller ones. Olivia smiled up at him without opening her eyes. Cole leaned down to kiss her forehead, brushing his lips against her sweet smelling skin. Today her perfume was lavender, and the delicate scent matched the feel of her hands.
"Darling, I was wondering when you'd get here." Her smile parted her full lips, making her even more beautiful. She fluttered her eyes open, ready to look into Gregory's warm smile.
Instead of her husband's soft brown, she looked into the bottomless black eyes of Cole St. John. If she had been able to draw enough breath past the lump in her throat, she would have screamed.
"I'm sorry 'darling' I came as soon as I could."
Eileen Garrison snatched Aaron, her toddler son, away from the elevator buttons with a heavy sigh of resignation. His two sisters, Nora, who was nearly three, and Amanda, the eldest at four, played patty-cake in their chairs as she returned to her seat in the waiting room. Dennis was supposed to have the girls today, so she could take Aaron to his check-up in peace, but the hospital construction was running behind. Turning his afternoon off into an afternoon at the site that would drag long into the evening.
Digging into her diaper bag for Aaron's crackers, Eileen muttered a curse on Gregory Richards and the whole board. This hospital project was the biggest thing to come to Sunset Beach in years, and it seemed the whole town was involved. For Dennis' contracting firm it meant the switch from building condos part-time to twelve hours days at the future Medical Center. He was there now because Gregory's wife, the illustrious Olivia, was touring the site tomorrow morning, and everything- everything had to be perfect for her arrival.
"If I hear 'Olivia' one more time today I'll just scream..." She whispered through clenched teeth to Aaron as she handed him another cracker. Nora brought her a book to read, and as they discussed the pictures of brightly colored Suessian creatures, poor Eileen missed Amanda jump from her chair and wander down the hallway of the second floor.
Amanda's head of red-gold curls bobbed as she wandered through the clean white halls of the hospital. In her mind it was a palace, a mysterious land of wizards and goblins. Goblins explained the funny smell the hospital had to it, and the wizards were the men and women in white coats who ran the place. As she wandered she was careful not to get captured by one of the wizards, they'd just drag her back to her mother and she'd have to sit and be good. Nothing was a greater waste of time than sitting and being good.
She was deep in the maze of closed doors and short hallways when she found the purse. It was black leather, the kind of really nice purse her grandma talked of owning someday. Thinking it was a treasure of the maze, she picked it up, throwing the heavy bag over her shoulder. The snap-clasp opened without warning and a few things fell out. Amanda's quick brown eyes were immediately drawn to the golden lipstick. It was brilliantly colored, engraved with a winding pattern of leaves and flowers.
Lifting it reverently with a chubby hand, she settled down against the wall next to the door to go through the rest of the purse. Maybe it was all a present after all. Perhaps the whole thing was a present! As her dimples burst out of her face in glee, she dumped out the rest of the contents to go through her new toys.
"Now you are in a bit of a situation, aren't you Olivia?" Cole's hand clamped down over her mouth, tightening down like an iron gag. He barely left her room to breathe from her nose. "And that great barbarian assistant, your doctor, or even your darling husband aren't here to save you."
His breath was hot on her cheek as he leaned down. The smell of his aftershave acrid in her terror. "Whatever are you going to do? No one ever lets you alone anymore. Everyone's been trying to prevent us from spending any time together."
As he stood back up, he released her mouth, fingers roughly squeezing her lips. "You know screaming is a waste of time. These rooms are all dampened for privacy. Rich women like you don't like to have their conditions become public knowledge, funny how that desperate need to be discreet has trapped you now."
He pushed her aside, forcing her head back into the examination table. Olivia started to move towards escape, her adrenaline roaring in her ears. She moved barely an inch when a sick realization shocked her into absolute stillness. She couldn't move. The terrified sweat of her hand made her blouse stick to her palm as she closed her fingers over the bandage with frigid despair. Roger said she needed to hold still at least half an hour. In the eternity Cole had been here, nearly no time had passed. She couldn't risk losing the baby. No matter what Cole did to her, she wouldn't be the one who hurt her baby.
Cole continued to lay out his thoughts in an gloating tone as he set out his tools on the counter in the back of the room. "Your first instinct of course, was to scream for help. We've discussed how that would a waste of your precious breath."
He pointed to the slowly ticking clock on the wall. "You and I both know you aren't going to risk your darling little baby by trying to fight me. You might have been tempted to make a grab for your cellular phone and call for help, praying they'd somehow get to you in time."
Olivia dropped her hand towards the floor, desperation feeling to see if her purse was still where she had left it. It was gone.
His laughter echoed deep in the tiny room. "It's in the hallway. Not too far away, just a few seconds from your grasp. Provided you could move." He turned to face her, eyes glittering in victory. "I've been reading up on prenatal procedures. Every motion of your body puts that little lump of flesh you're so attached too at risk. I'd even bet that you're wishing, desperately, that you'd decided against the whole thing. No bit of genetic knowledge could possibly be worth your helplessness."
He lifted something out of a bundled black cloth that she couldn't see around his body. Cole set it on the floor as he removed his suit coat and hung it over the back of a chair. Pulling that chair to her side, he sat down with a smile of icy gentleness. "So tell me Olivia, now that we finally have this lovely chance to talk, how does it feel to be completely helpless?"
Cole ran a hand through his hair and his teeth flashed in the same twisted smile. "Helpless and alone with the man who's been trying to kill you." He leaned close to her in a grotesque mockery of intimacy. "Have you been dreaming of me?" Cole took a strand of her hair in between his lips. "I can't close my eyes without thinking of what we shared in your bedroom. The way your eyes snapped open when you felt my hands on your throat-"
He sat back in his chair, letting his hands rest quietly in his lap. "But you shouldn't let me dominate the conversation- please, feel free to jump right in."
"We're sorry, the cellular customer you are trying to reach is not responding. Please check the number and try again." Gregory slammed the phone down on the automated recording. It wasn't like Olivia to be gone with her phone shut off. She knew how much that worried him.
He dialed Casey with a touch of exasperation. Perhaps she'd just forgotten to turn it on. Sometimes he wondered where her mind got too when he wasn't around to keep her on track. "Casey Mitchum-" The younger man began cheerfully right after the first ring.
"Is Olivia with you?" Gregory demanded immediately. "She's got her cell off again, would you let me talk to her?"
"Would if I could," Casey replied with a shrug. "I haven't seen her since we went to the radio station this morning. Dropped her off at home for lunch with Caitlin around 12:30. Why don't you try the house?"
Gregory sighed heavily in frustration and snapped, "I'm at the house now and Olivia's nowhere to be found!" Reigning in his anger, he softened his voice. "If you see her, or hear anything from her, just let her know I'm looking for her."
"Of course." Casey answered quickly. Olivia's occasional complaints about Gregory's over-protective nature made so much more sense the more he talked to the man. "I hope you get a hold of her-"
Gregory barely kept himself from hanging up while Casey was speaking. "So do I." He forced himself to say politely before he clicked the phone off.
Bette's cell was the next number on his mental list. Maybe the eccentric blonde had dragged her out for the first stint of that long-overdue shopping trip. Gregory remembered the discussion they'd had that morning, when she got dressed for work and realized she only had four blouses that fit, and smiled gently in spite of his concern. Watching her body grow and change was a living reminder of the reality of their baby, something in which he daily found more pleasure.
Gregory paced into his study anxiously as she picked up. "Queen of the Night speaking, how may I brighten your day?"
"You can do so considerably if you've seen my wife." Gregory replied quickly with a veil of sarcasm drawn barely over his concern.
Bette's apologetic cluck of her tongue ran his concern up another notch. "No Greggie, I haven't seen her since yesterday. What have you done now?"
"I haven't done anything-" He snapped viciously, but he couldn't sustain the feeling. This time his anger wasn't there to help him and he sighed in defeat. "Bette, I just want to find her."
"She's not in trouble is she?" Bette wondered, immediately becoming serious as she sensed his concern. He could hear her stop moving around her office. "Doesn't muscles know where she is? I thought those two were inseparable."
Gregory tapped his hand anxiously on his desk as he looked up the number of the radio station. It was a long shot, but maybe they'd have some idea. Maybe Olivia had just forgotten something. "Casey dropped her at home for lunch with Caitlin, but that was nearly two hours ago-"
"Honey, if I hear anything, I'll make sure you're the first to know, you know that." Bette interrupted with soft reassurance as she noted that Caitlin was the last one to see her mother. That required a little investigating. "I hope you find her soon."
Too concerned to notice that Bette had ended the call before he did, Gregory tried the radio station. When that came up useless, he called Liberty, but the front desk hadn't seen Olivia since this morning. She had dropped off the face of the earth.
The line to Roger's office was busy. Gregory forced himself to hang up the phone and wait. The picture of him together with Olivia mocked him from a corner of his desk. Asking himself where she could have possibly gotten too, he picked it up thoughtfully. Her smile seemed forced sometimes when he looked at that picture. They weren't getting along when Caitlin took it for her photography class, but she had wanted the picture of them together.
Now Olivia's smile seemed to be pleading with him to find her. To keep her safe from those who meant her harm as he had promised to do.
The ringing of his phone nearly stopped his heart as he attacked the receiver- "Olivia where are you!"