Down But Not Out

His heart was still hurting as he walked silently down his driveway and to his truck. He got in, took a sad, deep breath and starting up the engine. As he was fastening his seat belt he spotted the pink and black duffel bag sitting next to him on his front seat. He thought about running it back in to her, but he just didn't have it in him to go back again. He felt beaten down and torn up. He would keep it with him "for next time." He figured he would spare Jules from having to see his face for yet another time today. She made it very clear that his face was not one she wanted to see.

He kept the radio off as he drove because every song that played either reminded him of Jules or worse…the songs teased him about how she can't love him anymore or how life is miserable without her in it. He didn't need to be reminded.

He pulled down Warrick's street and parked outside of his house. He looked over at it and wondered what the hell Warrick was going to say once he returns from vacation. Nick will certainly have to take Sanders up on his offer and crash there next. Lord knows Warrick was not going to let him stay with him. Warrick is going to want to kill him, that Nick knew for sure.

He turned off his engine, but didn't get out right away, instead he just sat inside his truck staring out ahead of him. He began to think about who would take those pictures of him with Brooke and then send them to his wife.

What would be the point in doing that?

And who would want to hurt her that badly that they would go a step further and plaster them on her FaceBook wall?

This just seemed off. He needed to make sense of all of this.

What exactly happened? How did it begin? Was he really that drunk? Where was everyone else when they were hooking up? Why hadn't anyone told him the next day?

He just couldn't wrap his head around any of it. The questions flew through his head at top speed.

Nick reached for his cell phone and dialed 411 to get the number for Brooke Latham. Grabbing a pen from the console and jotting down her number on an old receipt, Nick was going to do his best to get some answers.

The phone rang three times before a she answered.

"Hello?"

"Brooke?" he said quietly.

"Yes," she replied.

"It's Nick."

"Oh my God! Hi, Nicky!" she squealed with delight. "What's up! I was hoping to hear from you."

"Oh yeah? Why's that?" he asked surprised by her comment.

"Welllll, you know…we had such a fun time at Josh and Anna's wedding that I thought maybe…I don't know," she giggled, "I guess I was hoping you would want to talk to me again soon."

Nick felt anger rising. Did she think this was a joke? She knew he was married and in love with his wife and daughter. Did she think he would just fuck around on them like it was okay?

"Brooke, I don't know what you are talking about, but I saw the pictures," he could feel his jaw tensing up. "Why would you send those pictures to my wife?"

"Pictures? What pictures?" she asked sounding confused.

"Those pictures of you and me! Who took them, Brooke?" he said angrily. "And why do I have no recollection of ever being with you that night!?"

"Well that's an insult, Nicky!" she said with an attitude. "YOU came on to ME!"

"Bullshit, Brooke! There is NO way I would do that!" he yelled.

"Oh, really? That's not what your dick said!" she yelled back. "Geez Nicky, I thought you were calling me to tell me what a good time you had!"

"Brooke, why would I? Why would I hook up with you now when I told you years ago I wanted to leave off as friends?"

"Friends, Nicky? FRIENDS?" she gasped, "We were together all through college!"

"No, no, we dated, we hooked up, we had fun…but I never committed to you…YOU always wanted more than I could give you! We had a lot of fun together…that was it!" he insisted just as he always had.

"NICK!" she yelled into the phone angrily.

"No Brooke, I made that clear to you ALL through college but you never wanted to hear it. You wanted to insist we were as close as Rob and Sherri, Ship and Amber, Josh and Anna; YOU wanted to be a couple like they were. I told you we were good the way we were," he said fiercely. "I told you when you followed me to Las Vegas that you and I together wasn't something I wanted. So tell me, Brooke, why would I suddenly want you now? And why would you even want me when I couldn't give you what you needed then and I am taken now?"

"So what are you getting at, Nick? Are you saying you want to blame ME for your infidelity? Puhleeze! You are pathetic!" she snapped.

"I don't believe it happened," he insisted.

"Well, it did. And you have six different pictures to prove it!" she yelled.

"But WHO took them, Brooke?" he asked again.

"I don't know!" she yelled back.

"What do you mean you don't know? You were there and you seem to remember everything! You don't remember a camera? You don't remember someone snapping pictures?" he yelled.

"Nope," she said flatly before slamming down the phone leaving him with nothing but a dial tone.

Nick continued to sit in his truck a few minutes mulling over their conversation. Something was wrong with what she said.

He closed his eyes and thought back to the day Jules threw him out.

He pictured himself standing in their entrance hall and opening the envelope. He remembered clearly looking at three pictures and putting them back into the envelope without looking at any others. He hadn't gone through them all so he wasn't sure exactly how many were in there.

Nick opened his eyes and squinted with confusion.

If she didn't know about any pictures, then how did she know there were six pictures sent?

No, no this was not adding up. Brooke was hiding something.

Nick bit the inside of his cheek and decided he needed to get those pictures from Jules. He wanted to look at them again and he wanted to dust them and analyze them to see exactly who touched them.

He was going to get to the bottom of this.

He wasn't just going to swallow this without a fight.