Authors Note: Thanks for all the awesome reviews. I am so happy people still remember this story. It does my Jolie lovin heart good to read them. Gives me a serious happy.

Chapter 18

Carlo sat in his gloomy motel room and watched the news with a gleeful smile. News of BE's latest corporate espionage had been on all the local news stations and he was more than pleased with his progress with Natalie. He hadn't been sure he had had enough time with her but she had been responding to his commands very well so far but he had more tasks for her.

This was just the beginning and he would be there watching... pulling the strings and the Buchanan's wouldn't know what hit them till it was too late. The plan was genius, destroy the heart of the enemy from with in and then watch as the rest fell like dominos.

After the news was over he got up and checked his watch.

"Soon..." He murmured to the empty room, his voice was rich with promise.

Natalie ran up to Llanfair with her overnight bag slapping against her side. She and John had spend most of the day in bed not wanting to leave it even for food. As a result she was slightly late as she opened the door.

Jess met her at the door all ready for their night out. "Natalie!" she said with a smile and hugged her as she got in the door. "How are you feeling? Are you sure you're up to this?" concern showed in her voice. As much as she wanted to have a night out with Natalie she didn't want her to over do it.

Natalie rolled her eyes a little. "I'm good Jess. Promise. Give me a minute to get changed and then we can go." She didn't spare a glance at the two men that stood unobtrusively in the back round, She had almost gotten used to the two body guards...almost. She raced up the stairs and dumped her bag in her old room before going to the bathroom to change her clothes.

Jess was certain Natalie would be a while but was surprised when Natalie came down stairs in just over 5 minutes. Looking over her redheaded sister Jess smiled widely, "Wow." Natalie wore a long figure hugging blue halter dress that showed off her body to its fullest. Her hair was swept up in a French twist and looked very sexy with the little strands framing her face. The blue heels gave her added height and gave her the look of sexy elegance.

Natalie grinned, "You didn't think I would let you be the only belle at the ball did you?" Natalie was really pleased with her choice of dress. While she didn't dress to impress the men, she already had the only one she wanted, she did want to look good.

"Ball? Its only a club."

"Yeah but its my brothers club. Ultra Violet is cool. Wouldn't want Rex to throw me out for embarrassing him." Natalie told her with a light laugh.

Jess just shrugged and rolled her eyes. Linking her arm with Natalie she said, "Shall we?"

Two hours later Natalie was on the dance floor with Jess causing quite a stir. The men were staring and most of the women were glaring. When the song was over they made their way, laughing and giggling, over to their drinks.

"So, you having fun?" Jess asked Natalie.

"Actually I am." Natalie shook her head in pretend wonder, "I never knew partying was so much fun." She gave a mock serious look before bursting out laughing.

Jess laughed too, she was glad she came back from London to spend some time with Natalie. She was really sad and ashamed with herself that it took Natalie almost dying, again, to bring her back to Llanview. How could she have been such a bad sister all this time. Time... That's why... Before now she had thought she had lots of time to get to really know Natalie. Even after Natalie came back from the 'dead' it still hadn't hit her that maybe there just wasn't time to do everything she had wanted to.

Sobering quickly with that line of thought Jess suddenly grabbed Natalie's hand as they sat down said, "I'm sorry for being such a bad sister Natalie. I really am sorry."

Natalie stopped laughing at the serious tone of Jessica's voice and really looked at Jessica, studying her face. She looked really sad all of a sudden and Natalie understood why. As much as Jessica had been ignoring her she had been ignoring Jessica just as much. She could have gone to London to see her family there, but she hadn't, and she couldn't blame anyone but herself for that. "Its ok. I wasn't the perfect sister either. I could have done better too."

"I'm a horrible sister. You almost died and I still didn't come home! It took you almost dying a second time to make me see the light. What kind of sister does that make me?"

"Yeah well I could have come into town with a better attitude. I understand why you thought you had to go to London. I was horrible to you." Natalie grimaced when she thought about all the horrible things she did to those she loved when she first arrived in Llanview. She had been so filled with hate and anger that she had almost lost everything she now held so very dear.

Jessica frowned. Natalie thought she had left because of her... that just wasn't true, not at all. "No, no, no. I didn't leave because of that..." She hesitated and fidgeted.

"I...I thought that I made you leave." Natalie frowned, "If it wasn't me then why DID you leave?"

Taking a deep breath Jessica said, " I left because of Antonio."

"Antonio!" Natalie was shocked. She hadn't known that Jessica and Antonio were even involved.

Jessica hadn't spoken of it to anyone but maybe now was the time to let it out. The pain of what happened still stuck with her, invading her every action till she thought she would never be free of it. "Antonio and I got drunk before I left. We got married."

Natalie's jaw dropped in shock, "You what?"

"Yeah, we got married."

"But...but... then why did you leave?" Natalie stammered out.

"We woke up the next morning and he said it was a mistake." She looked down at her hands, "I loved him, he didn't love me. I just couldn't stay after that."

"Oh Jess, I'm so sorry. I didn't know!" Natalie felt really bad for Jessica. "Are you still..." she asked gently.

"No, we had it annulled the day I left Llanview." Jess told her sadly. She gave a short un-amused laugh, "I think you are the only one in the family not to have a disastrous marriage."

Natalie frowned and said regretfully, " No I'm not..."

"You were married?" Jess asked incredulously. Natalie had never mentioned that she had been married before.

"Yeah, and it was a HUGE disaster." Natalie thought for a moment, trying to decide how much to say, then decided to just lay it down with the bare facts, just the facts, leaving out most of the truly ugly parts.

"I was seventeen when it happened. Living alone with Roxy was hell but I only had a couple of months to go till I graduated so it wasn't too bad. I met him when I was looking into apartments of my own. He was nice at first but then..."

"Then?"

"I found out what a bastard he was. He started following me everywhere wouldn't leave me alone. Kept telling me he loved me. I was so creeped out by him but when I called the cops about it I got a picture of Rex in the mail. It had a crosshair over Rex's face with a message that if I called the cops again he would kill Rex. After that I tried to avoid him but I couldn't. Eventually he blackmailed me into marrying him. I didn't understand why, it just made no sense. But after that happened he just left, disappeared, but then he came back when Allison told me I was a Buchanan. He demanded all my money, said he would leave me alone if I gave it to him. But by that time I had already put it in a trust for any children I might have. He was so pissed about that. He attacked me but I fought him off, I hit him in the head with a phone. There was blood all over. I thought I had killed him."

"Oh Natalie..." Jessica said sadly, "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want anyone to know," Natalie said, "Rex would have found out what I had done to protect him and he would have felt terrible. He's already carrying around so much guilt because of how Roxy treated me..."

"You said you thought you had killed him?" Jessica picked up, "You mean you didn't?"

"Unfortunately no. He's the guy that kidnapped me the third time. Carlo Hesser. I got the marriage annulled back when I thought I killed him." Natalie was silent for a long while then said, "Boy do we know how to suck the life out of a party or what?"

Jessica took the hint for what it was and changed the subject, "Ok let's get back on the party train shall we?" She downed a drink and grabbed Natalie's hand, dragging her up and onto the dance floor.

For the rest of the night the two sisters concentrated on just having some fun, serious topics were not to be talked about.

Natalie woke up with a groan. Her head pounded like someone was hammering on it with a jackhammer. Her stomach churned as she sat up. Looking around she was astounded at the state of her room. Clothes were strewn about the room, tossed on the floor and on every piece of furniture. Her heavy wardrobe was pushed on its side, clothes spilling out.

Shock warred with confusion as she took in the state of the room. She tried to think back to the night before but it was fuzzy, her memory was sporadic and she couldn't get a hold on enough of them to figure out what had happened.

"God, how much did I drink last night?" Natalie breathed to herself as she stood up unsteadily. Making her way to the bathroom she fumbled in the medicine cabinet for some aspirin. After taking a couple with a glass of water she slowly stumbled back to her bed and sat down. Her memory loss was really bothering her. She hadn't drank enough to cause a blackout in years and she didn't think she did this time. But obviously she had...