A master plan and a complication!

After Taylor's father and their kids knew about their relationship, Taylor and Ridge began to think about how and when they should share the news with the rest of the family. Even though they enjoyed the secrecy, they knew they wouldn't be able to keep up this charade much longer. Especially for Ridge, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep their relationship under wraps. After his mother told the whole family that Taylor was also living in San Francisco, not only she but all his siblings were constantly interested in news about her, and it was very hard for him to cover up his true involvement with Taylor. Also for Steffy and Thomas it was more and more a burden to keep the secret from the rest of the family. But Taylor and Ridge just couldn't figure out the best way to tell the family.

One evening, however, when Ridge came home, he had the solution to all their problems. He had talked to his mother on the phone this afternoon. In two weeks, his parents would be hosting the annual summer party for friends and family. His parents expected him to come home for this occasion. His mother had indicated, everyone would be very happy to see Taylor at the party as well.

"This invitation is the answer for us!" commented Ridge to Taylor over dinner. "The whole family will be there, it's the best opportunity to tell everyone about us at once, that way we wouldn't have to contact everyone individually." Taylor nodded.

"Indeed it sounds like a good idea, but how do you envision it in detail? Should we just show up at this party as a couple and shout 'Surprise'?!" Ridge got her point.

"Mhm, probably it would be better to tell them before the party." He mused. "I know how we'll do it, Mother has mentioned she'd like to have the family over for dinner the night before. This will be the best chance to tell them." Taylor thought about it for a long time, the plan sounded very reasonable, however she also felt a little uncomfortable facing the entire family again. Ridge noticed her hesitation.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah... yeah... I'm just wondering how they're all going to react to the news, and honestly I'm a little anxious about facing everyone again, I mean after all this time." Ridge reached for her hand.

"You shouldn't worry about that, they'll all be freaking out to see you again. You have no idea what kind of lectures I got from Felicia and Kristen when you left LA. Those two were totally on your side and were pretty harsh with me and Thorne too." Taylor, still not completely convinced, was a little bit more confident. Ridge continued. "Believe me, if anyone needs to be scared, it's me. They will all rather start to grill me." Taylor chuckled, sitting down on his lap.

"If they do, they'll have to deal with me! I'll defend you like mother bear. No one can get past me!" He pulled her even closer. "Well, we'll see how they react."

"True, but I guarantee you they'll all be thrilled. I think they'd all rather prefer us being back together than me back together with Brooke." Taylor stared at him horrified. "Hey, that was a joke!"

"It's not that, it just came to my mind, Brooke doesn't know about us yet either or did you tell her at some point?"

"No! You know I only respond to her messages when it concerns RJ, otherwise I never talked to her about anything else. But I get what you want to say. I'm sure Brooke will be at the party too, so it would be fair to talk to her first. I'll set up a meeting with her."

Over the next few days, Taylor and Ridge took care of their arrangements. Ridge told his parents he would come home for the party and the family dinner and that Taylor would join him. They also informed Steffy and Thomas, who were very happy to see their parents again. Finally everything was prepared, they would fly to Los Angeles on Thursday and back on Sunday night.

Wednesday morning they took their time and lazed around in bed. Both had taken the day off from work to prepare their trip without any stress. As they lay there comfortable in each other's arms, both of their phones began to ring incessantly and a flood of messages came in. At first they tried to ignore the constant beeping, but then they were both irritated about this terror. They had numerous missed calls as well as dozens of messages. Taylor was reading several text messages from Steffy and Thomas, saying it was very important to read her emails. Taylor got her laptop, Steffy had sent her a link. Taylor couldn't believe what she saw.

"Oh my god!"

"What's the matter?" asked Ridge, nervous due to her reaction. She turned the laptop towards him and Ridge was petrified. There was the cover of a tabloid with the headline 'Ridge Forrester - the way back to his true love!' Underneath were several pictures of them, all taken in the last few days. One showed them in an intimate embrace on a ferry, another as they came out of a restaurant and the third showed them on a park bench, kissing.

"Wow, that's unbelievable, someone has been watching us for days." Hastily, he skimmed the short text:

Ridge Forrester, CEO of Forrester Creation, separated from his longterm wife Brooke Logan Forrester, several months ago. But all those who assumed the well-known designer would indulge in misery were mistaken. Ridge Forrester has apparently found back to the bright side of life and not alone. Recently he has often been seen in company with a beautiful woman. The lady on his side is none other than Dr. Taylor Hayes, with whom Ridge Forrester was married several times and the mother of his children Steffy and Thomas Forester. It looks quite as if he has found his way back to his true love.

Taylor read the article over his shoulders.

"Well, maybe it's a little cheesy, but basically the article states the truth." Ridge looked at her, frowning.

"Yeah it could be worse, but I still wonder what kind of idiot comes up with the idea of gossiping about our private life. I mean, does the whole world really have to read about who I'm dating?" All at once the two stared at each other in horror, they both had the same terrible thought.

"Oh no! This can't be true when I imagine everyone at home is reading this now. They'll all be quite upset because they didn't hear it from us, but from the newspaper." At that moment, their phones rang again, Taylor got a call from Thomas and Ridge from his father. Both pushed the calls away and turned their phones silent. Perplexed, Taylor looked at Ridge. "What do you suggest now? We've got to figure out some way to undo the damage."

"I have no idea, I mean we can't very well undo this, but I'll find out who did this!" He reached for his phone again to contact some people. Taylor was now getting another call from Steffy and she decided to answer it this time to find out from her kids what was going on at home. When both Ridge and she hung up, she gave him a brief report.

"I just got off the phone with Steffy. All hell is going on at home, Thomas and her are being hassled non-stop by everyone to find out what is really going on, things are also turbulent at Forrester Creation as everyone is now calling for an official statement. Thomas and she went to her friend's place and hide out there for now. Steffy said we should come home as soon as possible and sort things out. Did you find out anything?"

"I sure did! I found out who wrote the article about us. Actually, I should have guessed, it was Jarrett!"

"Oh no, that jerk again!"

"Well, he didn't actually want to persuade us, it was actually Brooke he was after. He told me, he got in a huge fight with her over a home story and wanted to get back at her this way. He knows that I'm Brooke's sore spot and therefore he followed me to find something he could use to annoy Brooke and well we provided the perfect story. I gave him a piece of my mind, he replied he is sorry if he got us in trouble."

"Great! That makes me feel better right away!" Taylor was furious, just because this wannabe journalist wanted to tease Brooke, they were now in this mess. "I think Steffy is right, we should fly home as soon as possible."'

"Yeah, I think so too. I'd best order the jet immediately."

"The jet? Do you really think that's necessary? Surely there's a flight in the next few hours and we can change the tickets."

"And then run into some paparazzi at the airport who will then run the next cover story on us?! No way!"

"Okay, you got a point." While Ridge took care of the flight, Taylor packed their bags and rushed over to Susan's to drop off the key. Susan had read the article as well, but didn't really think it was a big deal. However, she understood how awkward the situation was for Taylor and Ridge. She tried to comfort Taylor and wished her good luck for the family reunion. Ridge called his father and asked him to make sure that everyone would gather at the Forrester mansion tomorrow afternoon. Of course, Eric wanted to know if the tabloid was a fake or true, but Ridge didn't give him an answer. He hung up before Eric could ask any more questions.

A few hours later, Ridge and Taylor were on the plane on their way to LA. Taylor made herself comfortable in his arms.

"You were absolutely right about ordering the jet. It's way more cozier this way!"

While Taylor dozed away, Ridge was far too nervous to relax. His thoughts circled around how his family would react. The article hadn't made things any easier. His parents didn't like it at all when they were confronted with such facts out of the blue. Ridge would have liked to explain it to them gently in his own way, now Taylor and he were in the predicament of having to justify themselves. Just before they arrived in LA, he woke her up. Seeing her hometown again after all this time, she got extremely excited.

"I can't wait to see our house again and of course the kids." Ridge let her joy get the best of him, but Taylor knew him well enough to see what was going on inside him. "Don't worry, Ridge. We shouldn't make things more complicated than they are. It's our life and we have every right to conduct it the way we want.. We'll just tell them the article is true and we're back together and then they should either be happy for us or not." She kissed him with all her love. He embraced her tightly and stroked her hair.

"You're right Doc! As long as we love each other and know what we want, who cares about the rest of the world."