A/N: Keep those reviews coming guys! This is a good chapter. Really good in my opinion

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Chapter 37: Gala

Jimmy drifted rather unknowingly from his room to Tammy's. She was sitting on her bed, unpacking slowly.

"Hey," he said from the doorway.

"Hi," she turned and smiled at him.

"It's me Tam," he said. "Wipe the smile off your face." She looked down. "Are you doing OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she whispered. He nodded. "What about you? I feel like we haven't talked in a month."

"Probably because we haven't," he shrugged and sat down with her. She hugged him tightly. "God, you've got me worried, Tammy."

"Are you here by yourself?" She asked softly.

"Julie didn't want to leave the kids," he explained. Tammy nodded. "We're a couple again, I think."

"That's good," she whispered. "You'll be good for Stephie and Mike." He nodded.

"Are you going to go down and check out the shooting?" He asked. She shook her head. "Why not?"

"Steve's there," she said. "Doing a set visit, taking pictures of shooting to plant on the internet, that kind of thing." Jimmy nodded. "I can't see him."

"Why not?" He asked. She closed her eyes.

"Because I can't," she said. "Because I'm not strong enough for that." He hugged her again.

"So, Cassie showed me the guest list," Jimmy said. She nodded. "Guess who bought a table?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," she shook her head.

"Nick Parsons," he said. She looked at him.

"God, has anyone told Tommy?" She said.

"Nope, no one wants to," he shook his head. "Are you stronger enough for that?"

"Come on Jimmy," she rolled her eyes. "I can handle Nick Parsons."

"Can you?" He said.

"Yeah," she said. "I can." He smiled. "When did I become the delicate flower, Jimmy? When did I become the girl who couldn't handle things?"

"When you stopped acting like the girl who can handle things," he shrugged. "When you fell apart on my couch and stopped taking my phone calls for a month." She closed her eyes. "Tammy, I love you, but what the hell happened? Six months ago you were on top of the world. You had everything you'd ever wanted. Now you're a wreck. So yeah, the people who love you, me, and Julie and Kelly and even Steve, we're worried about you, especially with your history." She closed her eyes. "Tammy, if you break down again, we're here to pick up the pieces."

"No you're not," she shook her head.

"Tammy," he said.

"You're not," she said. "Because you weren't. You want to know the difference between me now and me six months ago? I broke down. Not long after Kelly got married. And guess what? You weren't there. You were trying to fix your relationship with Bonnie, Julie was hiding in California, Steve," she sniffed, "Steve was in denial. I broke down and you weren't there, and I was on my way back and Cal and Elyse died. I'm not saying that we shouldn't all be there for Julie right now, I'm just saying she's not the only one with problems right now." Jimmy looked down. "Anyway, I can handle being in the same ballroom as Nick Parsons. I won that fight, a couple of times." Jimmy nodded. "I'm coming back Jimmy, but don't stand there and tell me that you would be there when you weren't."

"OK," he nodded. He looked at the mural on the wall. "You should paint over that. It's depressing." She laughed. "I know I wasn't there." She nodded. "I will be though, if it ever happens again."

"OK," she said. "Get out I have to get dressed."

"You look pretty," Rick said walking in and seeing Cassie look in the mirror and put her hair up. She nodded.

"Thank you," she said. "Can you get the tags?"

"Tags?" He said. "You're wearing off the rack? Do my sisters take care of you?"

"Will you relax?" She looked at him. "Of course Tammy and Kelly offered me a dress. I saw this one and I loved it."

"Oh," he said.

"And even if I didn't," she said. "There's a line of appropriateness." Rick looked at her. "Ricky, I'm a suburban upper middle class housewife. I'm not a socialite. I could have been, but I chose you and Eva and TJ and Bella instead, and I'm happy for it. Tammy can't waste time making me a dress, she has more important things to do." He kissed her.

"You still chair things," he pointed out. "Like this."

"I do this for our kids," she laughed and put her earrings in. "I'm not saying they have to, but the time may come when Eva is seventeen, and she is a crazy social climbing nutjob like her mother and aunt and absolutely needs to be on the gala committee or her life will end." Rick nodded. "I stay on the parent half, chances are better she gets that."

"You are so hot when you go into Mommy protective mode," he kissed her.

"Rick," she said.

"Mm hm," he kissed her neck.

"Vasectomy," she said. "Did you make the appointment?"

"I think I'm going to get you drunk tonight," he said. "And then I'm going to be super reckless and we're going to have unprotected sex in my father's pool."

"Your father closed his pool six weeks ago," she said. "And that's not going to happen."

"I've gotten you drunk many times Cass," he pointed out. "I got you drunk for the first time when we were fourteen, I passed out before I could try anything, but it happened."

"Why didn't you make the appointment?" She asked.

"Do we really want to completely rule out more kids?" He said. She sighed. "We're twenty eight. You're worn out now, but in four years, we don't know. We said no more after TJ and then we decided to have Bella." She sighed. "I don't want to rule it out."

"Do you not want to never have sex again until I'm ready to think about having another baby?" She frowned. "I can wait Rick, I know you can't." He sighed. "Try getting me drunk tonight though, that'll be fun." He laughed and kissed her. "Come on, we'll be late."

"Cass," he took her hand. She looked at him. "I don't want to close off any option. So to speak."

"OK," she said and kissed him. "I love you, let's go."

Dave sighed shoving his hands into his pockets and walked up the stairs to the gala. He came to surprise Tammy. But everything was screaming Janet at him. They'd met at this goddamned event. She'd had sex with him to make Scottie jealous. He walked in and saw Tammy standing casually drinking a glass of champagne. She looked stunning. He smiled and walked over, grabbing a drink from a catering tray on his way.

"Tell me," he said, whispering in her ear from behind, "where'd you find that dress?"

"Dave!" She squealed and hugged him. "Oh, I'm glad you came." She whispered, her face pressed into his neck. He kissed her hair gently.

"I guess I couldn't stay away," he said. "You look beautiful."

"Thanks," she smiled. "You look good too." He smiled. "I'm glad you're here."

"I would kiss you," he said. "But looking around a hell of a lot of my wife's high school friends are here." She nodded.

"Dave?" Janet walked over. "What are you doing here?"

"I'll um, go," Tammy said, "I should find my mother anyway."

"What are you doing here?" Janet repeated with her arms crossed.

"I went to school here," he said. "My family donates a large amount of money to this school, I'm pretty sure that's the point of this whole shindig."

"Your brothers donate money here, occasionally I cut a check, you personally can barely afford hockey tickets here," she said. "You hate coming here, you only ever did because Logan made you, or I made you." He sighed. "So what are you doing here?"

"I really wanted to have this fight with you," he smiled. She rolled her eyes. "Ooh and that, I've missed that."

"Dave," she said. "Seriously, this is humiliating for me. Everyone I grew up with is here, my parents are here, and I didn't know my husband was coming, so you could at least answer my question."

"I just came, Janet," he sighed. "What do you want from me?"

"A phone call," she said. He looked down. "A lunch, something, we're married, Dave! I mean, our marriage isn't much but it exists!"

"Janet," he said quietly. "I can't give you anything anymore." She sighed. "You look good."

"You look like you're trying to look five years younger than you are," she said. He laughed. "You look good too."

Tammy walked around campus quietly looking around, hugging herself. She noticed the trailers, lights and cameras set up. They were filming one of the gala scenes. It was a smart move. She walked over quietly. She saw Casey arguing with the young man she assumed was the director about something and laughed. The only time Casey ever seemed obvious was when he got really angry. His voice went up and his gestures got huge, and he actually sounded what Julie described as a screaming queen.

"Tammy!" Emma, the seventeen year old actress playing Marie called out and ran over. "Hi, we met in New York."

"I remember you," Tammy smiled. "This looks great."

"It's been so amazing," Emma giggled. "Your boyfriend is here. Were you looking for him?" Tammy looked at her.

"Um, Steve's still here?" She said. Emma nodded. "Where?" She pointed to a cluster of trailers where Steve was talking with a very beautiful woman, who was taking notes. She was a reported, but Steve was flirting, and not in the publicist to reporter way either. She'd seen that, she'd seen this too. "Thanks."

"No problem," Emma said. "I went to your house."

"That's not my house," Tammy said. "It's my step father's." Emma nodded and then Tammy walked towards Steve and the reporter, slowly, making sure he had time to finish. "Hi," she said seeing the woman walk away.

"Hi," he said coolly. "What are you doing here?" She shrugged.

"I was at gala," she said. "I thought I'd stop by and,"

"Tammy," he said. "What are you doing here?"

"I can't stop by and say hello?" She shrugged.

"Not when you said you wouldn't," he said. "Jimmy mentioned that guy,"

"Nick Parsons is a non issue," she groaned. "He's stupid little bug and I squashed him when I bought my first pair of Jimmy Choos."

"I'm glad you feel that way," Steve said.

"So who was that girl?" She asked.

"She's from Entertainment Weekly," he raised his eyebrows. "I was telling her how this was a long awaited adaptation of a modern literary classic. I compared it to Gone With The Wind."

"Gatsby is the conventional comparison," she shrugged.

"The movies of Gatsby suck," he said. She laughed. "Do you want coffee or something?"

"Sure," she nodded. They walked over to craft service. "I convince Dave to come tonight."

"No," he shook his head.

"What?" She sighed.

"No, I can't do this," he said. "I can't be the guy who listens to his ex talk about her new boyfriend." She looked down. "It's not in me, I'm not that guy."

"Janet came too," she whispered.

"He came with Janet?" He asked. She shook her head. "But he's with her now."

"She's his wife," Tammy sighed. "I'm the other woman."

"You've been the other woman for a few months now," he shrugged.

"I know that," she said. "I haven't felt like it until now though. Until I walked out of a party, and my boyfriend couldn't kiss me hello because it would give us away and then his wife came over and said she was humiliated." She sighed. "I didn't feel like the other woman before." He nodded. "Connie called me."

"Really?" He said. She nodded. "Are you going to see her?"

"Me and her and Charlie are having lunch at their place," she said. "I want to see the baby and she's not ready to take him out to a restaurant." He nodded. "Do you want to come?"

"To Connie and Charlie's house?" He said. She nodded.

"You like Charlie," she shrugged.

"I love Charlie," he said. "There's one little problem though."

"What?" She asked.

"I'm not your boyfriend anymore," he said. "And I'm going to be working." She sighed. "Do you really want me to come?"

"Charlie really wants you to come," she said. He looked at her skeptically. "He does, he said to me, 'It's too bad you and Steve aren't together anymore because I'd really like to see him.'" He smiled. "Come, it'll be fun."

"Plus then you might not have to ever be alone with Connie right?" He smiled. She nodded. "I assume since she called you she's over the abortion thing."

"Yeah, I go from abortion to adultery," Tammy rolled her eyes. "Which isn't just Please?" He smiled.

"Fine," he said. "But you need to promise me that you aren't going to drink too much champagne tonight and wake up in bed with Dave Vanderbilt." She looked at him. "I told the reporter she could go to the party at your parent's and talk to Scooter about his feelings on the movie."

"Why would you do that?" She said.

"Because I didn't want to go alone," he said. "And your mom found out I was in town and called and invited me." She smiled. "So I'm bringing her, and I promise not to do that thing I used to do before we got together with girls, if you promise not to go back to a hotel room with David Vanderbilt."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because I get very very jealous," he smiled. "Something that I'm sure your step brother could tell you." She smiled and he kissed her softly.

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