The Bold & The Beautiful Update Monday 1/9/06

Written By Wanda
Pictures by Boo

Still New Year’s, in the master bedroom at Tridge Manor, Ridge looks askance at Taylor and asks her if she is telling him that she and James had sex? Sniffling a bit, she answers that’s all it was – sex – nothing more. He looks incredulously at her as she offers that’s all it was; there was no relationship. It just happened one time, when they were trapped in the cabin together. He asks how long ago was that? He walks toward her and confronts her. Why is he just hearing about this now?

At the beach house, Nick picks up a tray of food in front of Bridget to take it back to kitchen. She thanks him and tells him the soup was so good, but she doesn’t want him waiting on her hand and foot. He jokes that yes she does! Well, she admits maybe a little. The teapot whistles and he says he will get that too. Then he spies her knitting and asks what is it? She remarks something pink and soft. Inquisitively, she asks what else did her mother say? Nothing much more than what he’d already told her, he was in a hurry to get home, he says. She asks what does her mother think Ridge is going to do? He brings her a big cup of tea and sits beside her on couch and tells her that Ridge’s wife is his business; he doesn’t really care. She informs him that she’s really not grilling him. He replies he knows; she can ask him anything she wants. She tells him it’s just that he’s been so attentive and completely loving and aware of what she needs and what she feels, she just wants to be there for him too. He remarks that she is. She says he is trying, but she feels there is a part of his thoughts that he can’t share with her without thinking she is freaking out. She just wants him to know that he can; talk to her! About her mother and what they talk about when they see each other.

At Brooke’s, she tells Stephanie there must be something she is not saying. Stephanie turns on her and remarks that she thinks she has gotten her message over. Brooke asks if Taylor is with Ridge right now? Stephanie answers that at this hour? Of course. Brooke then asks if she is telling him EVERYTHING? Stephanie gloats that yes, because that is the kind of relationship they have. Brooke smirks, “so I guess Taylor being dressed in her underwear with a cute fireman didn’t do too much damage, right?” Stephanie states that they are going to be FINE! Brooke wonders then what does it matter what she does or doesn’t do? Why does Stephanie come over there and huff and puff and threatens to blow the house down if she doesn’t stay away? She points her finger and answers because she knows Brooke will throw herself at him if she thinks there is the SLIGHTEST chance. But, Brooke offers she doesn’t even see Ridge except at work or when he comes over to see R.J. and Hope. Not even when Taylor threw him out of the house…..and Stephanie knows that! Stephanie must be worried that Ridge is going to throw himself at her! “And not over one little kiss. What else is our precious little Taylor been guilty of, huh?”

Taylor sniffs that she wants things back the way they were; the way they used to be. Does he remember? He offers that he guesses he never knew what they had or didn’t have. She thinks it was the most precious thing in the world to her. He was her best friend. She could tell him anything….anything in the world. He was the person she would tell it to. What happened to that? She states she feels she is just always trying to make the right impression for him all the time or something. He just utters that they all have their own insecurities. She reminds him that hers haven’t been little…..Brooke taking her place and raising her children…..and then feeling like the only reason they got back together was out of a mistake. A heart attack that didn’t even happen. She just feels that she had to be the perfect wife, the perfect mother every day, otherwise she’d lose him. “I felt so alone in this marriage. ….I know I felt alone partly because what I held back about James and me.”

When he doesn’t respond, she turns him around and gets in his face and shouts at him to get angry at her, go ahead, blame her. She can stand it. She can take whatever it takes to rebuild this marriage. But, just tell her that is what he wants too.

Brooke knows Stephanie would not have come over unless she was really worried, but about WHAT? Stephanie answers that it’s about Brooke, spreading malicious gossip! Brooke answers no, that is Stephanie’s style, not hers. All she cares about is Taylor coming clean with Ridge. Stephanie points out she is, because she is that kind of woman! Brooke opines that she is not so sure. Stephanie is Ridge’s mother. For heaven’s sake, what is she trying to hide behind his back? She blurts out that Taylor is having an affair with Hector! Stephanie answers no, no. Hector is a perfectly lovely guy but she’s not interested in him. She points her finger again and says that Brooke is just grasping at straws because she hopes Ridge will be for the taking again. “You asked me why I came over here. Well, I came over here to tell you he isn’t!” Brooke glares at her and states that it’s up to Ridge to decide what he will live with and what he won’t. Stephanie smacks at her that it wont be Brooke, so don’t get her hopes up. Taylor may have made a mistake, but she’s a better woman than Brooke has ever been! “You’re not the real thing, honey, and you will never be.”

Ridge sits on the bed; the words almost do not come. “You had feelings for James?” She tells him no. He was a friend, a colleague. Someone she respected and looked up to. What happened would have never ever happened any other way. She reminds Ridge that James was so badly injured, he remembers that. He thought he was going to die and he started telling her things. He’d told her he’d never been intimate with a woman. She offers that it was like a dying request or something. She cries that she doesn’t know why she said yes. Ridge remarks that he remembers arriving with the rescue team. How badly James’ leg was mangled. The whole thing looked so desperate. She jumps in that’s exactly what it was – desperate! But, he continues – yet neither of them gave any indication about this! She offers some lame thought that it was like once they got their life back, it sorta cancelled the other out. Amazingly, he looks at her and goes, “right.” She sits beside him and asks what does he mean? If he needs to ask her anything, just ask. He says he doesn't need to hear any more about James! She remarks okay, then let them just talk. They can talk about anything…..maybe something he wants to talk to her about. Something he hasn’t been able to. He wonders what? He grits his teeth and admits that all the stupid things he’s done has been right out there in the open. Every stupid, major, thing she’d been witness to. She tells him she knows she hasn’t cut him much slack. All she can hope is that he will be more forgiving than she’s ever known how to be.

Before a roaring fire, Nick tells Bridget that if he had anything to say about her mother, he’d say it. She explains to him that she wants to say is that things he thinks he can’t say, he can. He shrugs that he just doesn’t know what that would be. She tells him there are two things she’d like him to understand. She doesn’t think he would ever cheat on her. She completely trusts him. She knows he would never do anything behind her back or lie to her. It’s just not in his nature (yet, she thought it was just a month or so ago). She’ll never accuse him of that again. He lets out a big sigh of thank you! Secondly, she remarks she knows this can’t be easy for him. The feelings that he had for her mom were real, and they can’t just go away overnight. She used to think that all the love he had for her had to replace all the feelings and all the love that he had for her mom…..or anyone else that he ever loved. She didn’t think that was the way things worked, but she gets it now. She thinks it is more individually wrapped than that. They get to keep it. It’s just theirs. And she knows they are going to get to have a family in the future….the one they always planned. She loves him and just wants to share everything with him, even the hard things. He shakes his head and faces her, saying this is all very strange. Her mother is always going to be a part of their lives. And he doesn’t think he will ever be able to look at her as just a mother-in-law. Bridget says she understands that.

Right on cue, mother-in-law raps on the door and Bridget turns and sees that it is Brooke and tells her to come on in. Brooke hopes she is not interrupting. Bridget says no; they’ve already eaten. Anything wrong? Brooke tells her that Stephanie showed up at her house. Bridget asks if it is about Taylor as Nick had told her what Brooke had walked in on. Brooke admits yes; that she had told her to stay away from Ridge and warned her about saying anything about Hector. And she reflects, that IF that’s all it was, was a kiss, then they’ll work through that, but was that all it was? Bridget questions whether she thinks…….that she had been fooling around behind Ridge’s back? No, Brooke states….at least she didn’t, but it seems that Stephanie thinks so. Stephanie didn’t say that, but it seems to be the only thing that makes sense. She believes the marriage is falling apart so she doesn’t want Brooke any where near Ridge.

Standing there in her little, short, nightie and robe, Taylor laments that he’s not saying anything. Firmly, he says she did not answer his question. Why is he just now hearing about this? She tells him because she was afraid. He asks of what? She remarks of losing him! He barks of losing him, or something else? He continues, when he looks back on their history, everything he’s ever done was based on him seeing her as a certain kind of person. “A certain kind of person who would just not do what you did!” She gestures that she TRIED to tell him. That was her first impulse. She tells him she wrote him a letter (coward, wouldn’t in person have been better?) and left it out for him, but Stephanie intercepted it. He’s shocked – all these years and his mother knew too? She doesn’t know; maybe she was just trying to protect their marriage. She wasn’t going to stand there and make excuses for her. He retorts why would she protect her and not him? Making it okay for her to have sex with another man; was that protecting their relationship; their marriage? She asks is that really how it feels; that she got away with something? He yells, “well, didn’t you?” And then goes on to say that when he admitted that he still had feelings for Brooke, Taylor was outraged. She even made it sound like it was a character flaw in him. “Did it ever occur to you that what YOU had done……she finishes was worse than what he had. He tells her that he was never unfaithful…..did it ever occur to her? Did she ever think about it? She cries that she put it completely out of her mind. But, sometimes in the middle of the night it would come back to her. She can’t tell him what’s she’s been living with. She contorts her face and admits that the shame of it would grip her like some electric shock or something. She couldn’t stand it and thought she was going crazy or something. She had to put it out of her mind, forget about it and pretend it didn’t happen. She was NOT proud of it, she bellows. He asks if she knows what she just told him? That she knew she had been condemning him all these years for something that wasn’t nearly so bad. And all she could do is want to put it out of her mind!

Nick attempts to get up and says he will leave the gossiping to the two of them. But, Bridget grabs his arm and restrains him and tells him to stay. Bridget declares that it makes her so angry to think Stephanie is covering up for Taylor after all the years of her calling her mom names. Brooke states that maybe she is wrong. Maybe there is no big secret affair. Maybe she just needed a punching bag. Bridget puts in her two cents. When she thinks about it, that marriage has always been in trouble from the beginning. While she has all sorts of respect for Taylor, she thinks that when she found out the heart attack was an act, she should have backed down from those deathbed wedding vows. Brooke says but they can’t hold her responsible for Stephanie’s lies. Bridget makes an analogy of robbing a bank and then another person accepting the cash and having that person arrested. That’s exactly what Taylor did. Brooke has been robbed! And Nick adds that so have her kids. Bridget offers that if things are that bad in that house, then there could be another chance for her and Ridge. (oh, here we go, another merry-go-round). Nick and Brooke exchange a knowing look.

Taylor wails that she is not being fair. It was just a fantasy for her to think that he would just stand there and listen quietly and then just forgive her. She knows he needs time. Ridge reminds her that she has had years…..he doesn’t need years. “I don’t even need a day. I don’t really understand why you let Hector come back into this room. You told me that would never happen again.” She interjects that she told him – she was feeling abandoned, it was the holidays, and he wasn’t there. (oh, the old ‘while the cat is away, the mice will play’ routine. And it’s HIS fault!). He states why doesn’t she do what he does? Why doesn’t she just yell at him? He’s thick but he gets it eventually. He tells her he’s not going to come unglued because she kissed some guy. Even if it’s a guy he dislikes as much as HIM! He sighs; actually he thinks she and Hector have a lot in common. She says Hector seems to thinks so too, but she doesn’t see it.

Ridge snorts that maybe it’s the halo. And he’s glad she didn’t leave him a letter this time about James. He looks directly into her eyes accusingly and says he remembers very well what happened when he’d found them up there at the cabin; half frozen, starved. He sneers there was black blood all down James’ side. Whatever happened between the two of them didn’t seem like a beautiful sacrifice she was making for a good friend. It seemed repulsive. He doesn’t know why she did what she did. If she thought he was dying…..well if he WAS dying, there were lots of things he wasn’t going to get to experience. That’s the definition of DYING. “But, hey it happened, I wasn’t there, so if you want forgiveness for all of that, then you got it.”

She’s so relieved and humbly thanks him twice. She cries,“you have no idea how hard it’s been holding it all in all these years.” She rushes to hug him; he’s not hugging back. He asks did she think he was going to end their relationship over something like this? She remarks that she didn’t know. “All I knew was that I’ve never been unfaithful. I never felt unfaithful. Not our love. That, I never betrayed.” Ridge asks not ever? Not in the half hour with James maybe, but what about all the years in between? She doesn’t understand the question.

He bites his lip – what about all the hypocrisy? He mocks, “what about ‘Taylor, the good? Taylor, the virtuous?’ Holding all of us up to this standard of yours.” He grills, what about the way she treated him? What about the way she treated Brooke? The years of disdain and condescension? ”That I don’t understand, Taylor……THAT I can never….I can never forgive.” She’s crushed.

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