"Bill, where are you going? RJ is getting out of the hospital today after his fall last week," Katie said as her husband watched the maid pack his suitcase.
"Pennsylvania," he grunted as he checked his watch and did his best to not yell at the maid to hurry up. His wife hated it when he yelled at the help. Bill hated it when Katie yelled at him.
"What's in Pennsylvania? Spencer Publications doesn't have anything based out of there."
"A whole lot of nothing," Bill informed his wife with a sneer. "But it's not business-related."
"Is it about Wyatt and Quinn?"
Nodding, Bill remembered Taylor begging him not to tell anyone about Sheila until she could talk to Massimo. He didn't much care about Ridge having a secret sister: his focus was solely on using the girl to find Sheila. And just that morning, Justin had turned something up. They had found a Celia Fitzgerald who was about the right age and background to be Sheila's daughter.
"There's a doctor there by the name of Hayward," Bill said dismissively. He had rehearsed the conversation in his head so many times he had any and all questions answered before Katie could ask them. "He was in the news a few years back for some medical breakthrough called Orpheus. I'm hoping he'll be able to do something to help Wyatt."
"And his mother," Katie added. Bill shrugged.
"All that matters is that I go to this Pine Valley hole and talk to this doctor. You and Liam will be fine without me for a few days."
Katie stammered. "A few days, Bill? Why don't you just call the man?"
"Because he doesn't have a legal medical license. I'm going to woo a man into flying across the country to do an illegal medical exam on Wyatt to figure out just what happened in that house. That needs to be done in person."
The maid zipped Bill's suitcase shut and he dismissed her with a wave. Katie thanked her and the maid nodded before leaving the room.
"I'll call you when I get there," Bill promised before kissing his wife on the cheek.
"You better." Katie hugged her husband.
Bill smiled. He was going to find this Celia, he was going to ensnare Sheila Carter in his trap, and he would find out just what she had done to his son.
B&B
"He's still not answering," RJ complained. Liam just rolled his eyes and sighed. He did like the kid, but how had he gotten stuck with being his caretaker? "He's probably still busy as hell at the office. They're spending all their time trying to scrape together a line at the last second and here I am doing nothing."
"You just got out of the hospital less than an hour ago, RJ. A woman tried to kill you. I don't think anyone cares that you aren't at work. And this is where you've been staying?" Liam pulled up in front of the apartment complex and double checked his GPS. It was the right address.
"Isn't it precious?" RJ asked, rolling down the passenger side window and waving to the teens sitting on the steps leading to the entrance. "Hola!"
Liam grinned and waved as well, but the kids ignored them. "Why does your boyfriend live here?"
"Because he's too poor for Beverly Hills and too ethnic for Silver Lake," RJ explained. "Besides, the Eastside has a certain charm."
"If you say so. My car is gonna be safe here, right?"
RJ looked at Liam like he was a dumbass. "It will be fine. I just need to grab some things before I go back to the loft."
"Right. Noah told me he was leaving when he quit. How are you taking it?"
"I'm accepting it." It didn't take a genius to see that RJ was hurt, but Liam didn't want to push it any further. "Are you coming up? I mean, I can walk and all that, but unless you want my crippled ass to be hauling everything at the speed of Aly, you might wanna help."
"Are you sure Thad is gonna be okay with me being in his apartment? We don't know each other."
"Liam," RJ opened the car door and looked at his friend, "it's fine. You're fine, your car is fine, Thad is fine, and, aside from the bruising and this hat being viridian instead of olive, I'm fine. Everything is okay, or it's on its way to getting there. So chill."
It hurt, getting out of the car, but RJ was just thankful that hurt was all he was. What if he had broken something in the fall? What if he had died like Eden?
"Lemme help you," Liam insisted, slamming his door shut and gently grabbing RJ's arm and helping keep him steady.
"My hero," RJ laughed. Liam joined in and the kids on the steps ignored them. "This may take awhile, because there's no elevator."
"I'm shocked."
When they reached the door to Thad's apartment, RJ fished the key out of his pocket. Thad had... In the hospital, when it was just the two of them, Thad had given RJ a key. Most people would have thought they were moving way too fast, but everything RJ had done with the man was fast. He was just glad that the key meant Thad was taking the relationship as seriously as he was. There was something definite between them. There had to be.
The door swung open to an empty apartment.
"Are you sure this is the right place?"
Pulling away from Liam, RJ stumbled to the tiny hole in the wall that passed for a closet. All of his clothes were still there, but any trace of his new beau was gone. What the hell was going on?
"I'm sorry I couldn't stay," Liam said. RJ turned as fast as his body would let him and spied Liam reading a note taped to the fridge. "Something came up back home and I didn't have time to tell you goodbye."
"But he had time to remove any trace of his existence." RJ hobbled over to Liam and ripped the paper from the fridge. There was still more written on it. "I hope you can forgive me, but until then I hope you treasure the reminder of our time together I left on my laptop."
"This must be it." Liam had wandered away while RJ was reading. The laptop was on the counter and Liam touched the screen and snorted, then reached down to the touch pad. "He couldn't even afford a touchscreen? How poor was your... Oh god."
Liam slammed the laptop shut and his face went white. This scared RJ.
"What is it? Liam, tell me."
"I don't know how."
"Then move over so I can see."
B&B
Steffy laughed. When she had been linked the video in a blind text, she almost hadn't clicked on it. It was probably spam or a virus, she had reasoned. She was wrong.
One might find it morbid or disgusting that Steffy Forrester was watching her brother's sex tape, but she just found it hilarious. And judging by the tweets tagged with his name, so did a lot of other people. Admittedly, he had some skill, but not much. Most of his positions were amateurish at best. No wonder Noah had left him: RJ looked like a boring lay.
The only thing more laughable than her brother's performance was the number of people who had viewed the video. Only ten thousand? That was lame. It probably would've been higher if there had been audio. Oh well, once the news reached the blogs, and she was sure they were typing everything up now, hits would escalate.
With a smile, Steffy copied the URL and forwarded it to Bill. He would do everything with it that she couldn't. Then Steffy logged out of her Twitter account and into the Forrester Creations verified account. It was time to stir up a little publicity.
"Forrester Creations kindly requests that everyone respects the privacy of RJ Logan at this time," Steffy typed with a giggle. If that didn't draw the public's attention, nothing would.
B&B "I came here wanting to be a singer and an actress. I wanted to be a star. Hollywood was supposed to be my ticket out of that hellhole where I grew up." Maya gave a sad smile and looked at the skyscrapers around her. "A lot of good things happened here. Some great things, really. I fell in love with three very different men in this city. I had a daughter. I had an entire second life, which is two more than some get." "It can still happen," Noah promised. He reached out and held Maya's hand. Her eyes traveled from their clasped hands to his face. The smile on her face became more sincere and he returned it. "We'll come back." "We?" Maya asked, curious as to what Noah meant. As far as she knew, RJ was the reason he was even in LA. "What about Genoa City?" "What about it? I still have my internship at Spencer: Liam is letting me take an indefinite leave, partially because of what Courtney did and mostly because they weren't paying me anyway. Besides, I still have my music. It'll be a lot easier to get a record label here than in Wisconsin." Nodding, Maya squeezed Noah's hand and tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. "Right. My mistake." "You remember where this Fascinella guy's clinic is, right?" Noah asked, the mood suddenly changing. Things were no longer light and hopeful. "You really don't have to come with me. It could be dangerous." "It would be more dangerous for you. Rich white boys make great hostages," Maya argued, the taxi finally pulling up in front of the building. As Maya stepped up to open the door, she felt a tug on her hand. Noah wasn't moving. Turning her head, she saw that he was looking up at the building where he had lived for all those months. She broke a little at the look on his face. "We need to go." "Yeah," Noah said sadly, pulling his eyes away from the building and looking into Maya's. He could force himself to smile all her wanted, but he couldn't hide the hurt in his eyes. Maya knew that pain well. "We need to go."