I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. And safe travels if you're traveling!

"Ridge, what's going on?" Taylor asked while brushing her hair at the vanity.

Looking up from his sketch pad, Ridge pondered how to answer her question. It would be so easy to slip into his old ways and avoid the question. But no, he wasn't going to do that. He would be honest. "Nothing is going on Doc besides the fact that my two eldest children are still dead." He was honest with a bit of anger and sarcasm thrown in. How dare she act like she didn't know what was wrong? "I'm sorry I'm not grieving fast enough for you," he added curtly.

"Ridge," she sighed, looking at him via the mirror. "I know you miss them and love them. We all do. But have you stopped to think how your dad feels when you make those statements?"

"Screw Dad."

"Ridge?" she said, shocked.

"I'm not going to bury my feelings about Ric and Bridget in order to make other people feel better. I'm the one who delivered Bridget and changed her first diaper. I was the one who taught Ric to tie his shoes and write his dad. Me, not Dad. But just like Dad, I failed them and forever I must live with that knowledge. It haunts me. The same way you were haunted with the things you could have done differently when we thought our daughter was dead."

Taylor stopped brushing her hair. She tried not to dwell on that dark period in their lives when her baby had been gone.

"Only with their deaths have I found the courage to deal with what they meant to me and how I let them down, and as great as having Thomas, Stephie, and Phoebe is, it doesn't replace what I've lost."

She honestly couldn't understand why Ridge purposefully kept creating an imaginary link between himself and Brooke. She would swear that they were involved again, except Stephanie assured her that Brooke practically shunned the

Forresters and kept Hope and Little Eric to herself. This information did a lot to soothe her heart, but she was still ill at ease with Ridge's insistence to live in this fantasy world where he and Brooke had kids. His only child with Brooke died over two decades ago with Brooke's miscarriage. How could she put an end to this nonsense? She loved Ric and Bridget and her heart broke that they lost their lives at such young ages. She even felt sorry for Brooke, but enough was enough. She had tried seduction, crying, being understanding, anger, but none of it worked. Nothing. He needed to snap out of it. "Ridge, what about the kids? You're confusing them with all this talk about Bridget and Ric being your kids."

"When our kids are old enough and mature enough, I'll explain it all to them."

"What exactly are you going to explain?" Her anger came through loud and clear. "Why are you trying to create a parental relationship with Ric and Bridget that never truly existed? Yes, you were Ric's step-father for a little while and for a few years you thought you were Bridget's biological father, but that's been years ago. They've spent the majority of their lives as Eric's kids and now you're trying to rewrite history, hurting your father, your mother, myself, the kids, Ric's and Bridget's memories, and the rest of the family. My children can live happy lives without being drawn into the Brooke and Ridge saga," she finished, throwing her brush on the vanity and standing up to face him.

"Taylor, do you even think it's possible that our kids can growup without knowing about my relationship with Brooke- -"

"Heaven forbid, they not know about it," Taylor exclaimed. "I guess I can count on her being part of our lives twenty years from now. Great!"

Ridge threw his sketchpad on the floor and raked his fingers through his hair. "Logan has been a part of my life longer than you have and she's my friend and I expect her to be part of my life and my kids' lives until the day I die." Jumping out of bed, he hastily put on his robe. "Here are some other things that are not changing: Brooke

being part of my life, and Ric and Bridget being my kids. I might have only legally been their father for a little while, but that little while changed and shaped my whole life. I'm the father I am today to our kids because of them- -"

"Thomas is your firstborn and you're going to usurp him from that position because you're feeling guilty cause Ric didn't think the ground you walked on was paved with gold when he died," she shouted.

"Yes, because that's how it was before he came along until you decided that I had to choose between being part of his life or having him growing up thinking Thorne was his father."

"I didn't force you to choose."

Ridge laughed. "No, your uncontrollable jealousy of Brooke and the family we had did. If I didn't give you and Thomas all of my attention then I couldn't be a part of his life at all. You wouldn't allow our son to be part of the life I already had with a step-mother, older brother, and older sister. Are you that jealous of Brooke? You know she would have gladly accepted Thomas, she would have loved him like she loved Ric and Bridge. But that wasn't good enough for you and you couldn't even find it in your heart to extend the same love and courtesy to Bridget and Ric. Are you jealous of her ability to love and accept people regardless of who their parents are or where they came from- -"

"I am not jealous of that whore, who slept her way through this family. She's filthy and I can't believe you would even think of saying that she's a better person than me. And if you were trying to convince me that you weren't involved with her again...you've failed. Once again she's worked her voodoo on you. You're claiming her kids regardless of the fact that they have a father. You're defending her left and right like she's some saint. While all she's done since her kids died is stolen Amber's son and raised the daughter she had with her dead daughter's husband. I am so damn sick of her being the third, ever present person in this marriage. For once in her pathetic adult life, she's trying to do the right thing and heal

without leaning on a Forrester man, but you just won't let her do that. Maybe you two work voodoo on each other. I don't understand this. She's going through a rough patch, just let her be for the sake of the family."

"A rough patch?" he roared.

"I didn't mean it like that. I meant a very difficult period in her life that no mother should ever have to go through- -"

"But that's not what you said. Have you even once been to her house to offer your help?"

"Of course I have- -"

Ridge shook his head. "No, you couldn't have or if you did you didn't mean it because then we wouldn't be having this conversation. You wouldn't be worried that a woman who can't find the bodies of her presumed dead children, mind you not the first set she's lost, but the second set, is out to become a Forrester again. The Forresters aren't gods, although my mother would like people to think we are. We're just a normal family. Logan isn't the devil trying to destroy this family. I introduced her to the family and almost made her a part of it- -"

"And she made sure your dad closed the deal."

He laughed hysterically. "I like how my father is so innocent in that relationship. I bet you would have a different opinion if your dad started dating Felicia. Would you think it was okay? I bet your brother wouldn't. Would you think Felicia was some pariah trying to become part of your family?" Taking a deep breath, he stared at his wife for a moment then began again. "Logan is and always will be friend."

"How would you feel if I was as close to my ex as you are to Brooke?"

"If you shared the history with him that Logan and I shared then I would question the kind of person you were if you didn't have some sort of relationship with that person."

"You'd be jealous," she countered.

"No, I wouldn't. I would understand, which, sadly is something you're lacking. I don't know now if you've never had compassion for other people or my mother talked you out of showing any to people she's deemed unworthy. And I'm not sure which is worse. But something's got to give."

"Or?" Taylor demanded, angrier than she had ever been before.

"Or?" A thousand words raced through his mind. "You need to make an appointment with Dr. Evans."

"You think I need counseling?" She couldn't believe this. He thought she needed to see a psychiatrist.

"I think this marriage needs it," he said with finality as he walked out of the room.