Episode 13 – You’re the
one that I want
– Divine got a visit from Mercedes, and they talked about the past.
– Gabriel told Leslie that their brief fling was over.
– Judi got a visit from Alex. He kissed her, but she was uncomfortable
and left.
– Divine made a successful return to work at the strip club.
– Honey was about to shoot Mercedes in the dressing rooms.
Saturday,18th January 2003, Sebastian’s
strip club, after midnight
As Mercedes
started to remove some of her make up, she noticed that Honey’s
drawer was open. Someone had been rummaging around in it, although her clothes
were still there. Mercedes closed the drawer and, although slightly puzzled,
continued to remove her make up.
Outside the door, Honey
stood. She had the gun in her hand and was preparing to shoot Mercedes. Honey
pushed open the door slightly, although Mercedes didn’t hear it. Honey started
to raise her gun, as she prepared to fire. She slowly started to pull back the
trigger.
“Oh my god” came a voice from the side. Honey
looked up the corridor to see Elektra
standing there. “There it is”
“What?” asked Honey, innocently.
Elektra walked down the corridor, towards Honey.
“The gun of course. I needed it earlier on and couldn’t find it”
She raised her hand and took the gun from a speechless Honey.
“What were you doing with it?” Elektra asked, as
she moved her fingers along the weapon, thinking it was just a toy.
“I ahem…” Honey started. She coughed. Elektra
held up the gun. She had noticed how it seemed heavier than usual. Once she
realised that it was a real weapon in her hands, Elektra dropped the gun. It
created a loud sound, although Mercedes didn’t hear. She looked up at Honey
and, from the corner of her eye, noticed Mercedes in the dressing room.
“You were, going to…” Elektra began. She couldn’t
finish as the shock overtook her. Honey was actually going to murder someone,
just because that someone was sleeping with Sebastian.
Honey couldn’t look Elektra in the eye, as her actions seemed to hit her hard.
“You should be locked up” Elektra started again,
and this time continued. “Are you mad? Murder? You aren’t that desperate are
you?”
Honey tried to speak, but the words never
reached her lips.
***
Thursday,23rd January 2003,
The hospital, nine a.m.
Judi Anders smiled as she put down her stethoscope. She had been working all night
and needed a good sleep after the rush during the night. It has been one of the
busiest nights in the last couple of weeks and she was exhausted after one
fire, three crashes and various other ailments which she had been dealing with.
Judi took off her white coat and slipped on a
stylish black leather jacket. It had been a Christmas present from Kayla.
Judi looked at her watch and sighed. She was supposed to have finished work at
eight, but a bleeding ulcer and a third degree burn had kept her there. And I’ll be
back here at nine tonight she thought.
As she walked through the doors to the hospital,
Judi smiled as she looked up and felt the warm rays of the sun on her face.
“Oh sorry” said the man who had bumped into her.
Judi shifted her glance, onto the person who had bumped into her.
“It was my… Alex” she began but shocked at the
person’s identity. She flashed back to the previous Saturday night, when she
and Alex
had kissed. There was a short silence.
“So, ahem how have you been?” he started.
“I have been good” she answered. There was
another awkward silence, until Judi spoke again. “And you, how have you been?”
“Me, well I have been good too” he answered.
“Look about the other night, I am sorry”
“No, I am sorry. I was rude to you and I
shouldn’t of let you believe that there was something there for us” Judi
replied.
“I was so worried about seeing you again. I
shouldn’t have kissed you”
“It doesn’t matter Alex. We can still be friends
can’t we?”
“Yeah, that would be great”
“So what are you doing here?” Judi asked.
“I have an appointment with the shrink about
what happened”
“How are things going on that front? Have you
come up with anymore ideas about Grant?”
“No, nothing at all. I don’t think that I ever
will. But I do think that he and Jenna were involved” Alex answered.
***
Russell and Camille’s apartment, eight
thirty p.m.
Camille Elliot smiled as she watched Cleo
read a notebook. Cleo seemed to be very happy and was settling in at school.
“How are things in school? Are you settled in
yet?” Camille asked.
“Everything is fine. I suppose I am settled in,
now that I have made so many new friends, although I don’t get on with
everyone” Cleo answered as she left the notebook down.
“Who don’t you get on with?”
“Well Kayla Anders
hasn’t been the most welcoming on people. Sort of icy. And I think she has
turned her cousin Nate
against too”
“I wouldn’t worry about Kayla. She is probably
like her
mother in many ways, which isn’t a good thing”
“You don’t like her mother at all do you?”
“No, Judi and I have never really gotten on. She
puts it on the line too much” Camille said, not quite knowing how to put her
opinion on Judi to Cleo.
“You think that she is a bit of a slapper?”
“Ahem, I suppose. Leslie
has told me that Judi had an affair with a married man years ago”
“And you think that she likes Russell.
Is that it?”
“Well, I don’t know. You don’t think there is
anything going on between them, do you?”
“No, of course not. Russ is faithful”
“I suppose that you are right” Camille said, not
one hundred per cent sure though.
There was silence for a couple of minutes as
Cleo returned to her reading, and Camille started to read another magazine. But
she spotted a file on the coffee table, belonging to Russell.
“Do you think that I should go down there, to
the hospital?”
“I don’t know. I suppose that you should” Cleo
answered, as she read through Leo’s ideas for the history project.
“Okay then. I will be back in a while”
***
The Samson Mansion, nine p.m.
Leslie Samson opened her eyes. She had fallen asleep while reading, although she had
been thinking more about Gabriel McLoughlin
than the epic tale of romance, family and murder. Leslie was thinking about
Gabe finishing the affair the previous week. She had been wondering if a man
who slept with his mother in law to be at his engagement party really was right
for Chardonnay to marry.
Leslie looked up as she heard the door open. She
saw Victor
standing there. They hadn’t been sleeping in the same bed for a couple of
weeks, and both Chardonnay and Nate
had asked their mother about the situation.
When Victor spotted his wife he turned to leave,
but Leslie called after him.
“Wait Victor” she called.
“What? Want another argument?” he said, stopping
in the doorway to wait for a reply.
“We need to talk. The kids are confused about
what is happening between us”
This caused Victor to turn and look at Leslie.
“Char and Nate don’t know if we are getting a
divorce, or if we are staying married” she continued.
Victor walked over and took a seat beside his wife.
“I don’t know what we should do. We are both
unhappy, but I don’t think we should make any decisions soon. We should think
about our next move”
“In the long term though, what about that
Victor?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we should get a divorce,
but should we stay together for Chardonnay and Nate’s sake?”
“I don’t want to get a divorce just yet. We
shared so much and we still do. It would probably be a waste to throw it all
away” Leslie said.
“I know, from Chardonnay’s birth to Nate’s first
steps in the ski lodge in Austria”
“Remember how surprised we were when your dad
gave us that place on our fifth anniversary?” Leslie said, as she flashed back
to various events in her and Victor’s lives.
“When was the last time we were there?” Victor
asked, as he too remembered times, both life changing and sentimental.
“Christmas 2001?”
“Yes, but I mean the four of us. That was only
me, you and Nate. Chardonnay didn’t come because she and Jean Luc were in
Canada with his parents”
“Oh yeah. I sometimes wish she was marrying Jean
Luc rather than Gabriel” Leslie stated, surprising Victor.
“Why? I thought you liked Gabriel more than you
did Jean Luc”
“Well I used to, but at least we knew a lot more
about Henri and Celia than Gabe’s parents. We haven’t even met them yet and
Gabe has no intention of introducing us, does he?”
“Well you know why that is, don’t you?”
“No”
“He is adopted, he doesn’t know his real
parents” Victor informed his wife.
“How do… You did a background check didn’t you?”
Leslie asked.
“Yes, I thought we needed to know if there were
any skeletons in his closet”
“And you know, about the drugs?”
“Of course, but he wasn’t convicted was he?”
“Doesn’t it trouble you though?”
“No, not really. The evidence was tampered with”
A couple of minutes passed and soon Leslie and
Victor had started discussing Nate. More time passed and they started to drink
alcohol, with Leslie making a surprise cocktail for both herself and Victor.
“What is this?” Victor asked, puzzled by the
taste.
“I am not saying” Leslie answered, as she
finished her drink.
“Oh come on. I didn’t even know that you could
make cocktails until now” Victor laughed.
“Want another?” Leslie replied, standing up.
“I think I will have something else” Victor
said, also rising to his feet. He took his wife’s hand into his.
“What? Wine, whiskey?”
“No, a dance” he answered. He pushed past Leslie
and walked over to the stereo in the corner. He picked out a CD and put it on.
“A dance? Are you crazy?” Leslie joked.
“No, just want to remember the time we first
met” Victor said as the sounds “You’re the one that I want” from the film
“Grease” started to ring out. Victor turned around and Leslie looked curiously
at her spouse.
The twosome started to dance, as they remembered
that night all those years ago when Leslie had met Victor in a bar, where she
pretended she was twenty two, rather than nineteen. The following year Victor
had married Leslie and then, months later, Chardonnay arrived.
As she looked in his eyes, Leslie felt some of
her feelings for Victor were back. She moved closer to him and they kissed, a
slow but passionate kiss.
***
The hospital, same time
Judi took the stethoscope back in her hands and hung it around her neck. It
had only seemed like a couple of moments since she had been putting it down,
but it was almost twelve hours.
“Hey, there you are” came a voice from behind.
Judi felt a pair of strong, masculine arms around her. She turned around to see
Russell Elliot behind her.
“Are you mad?” she said. “We can’t be seen here.
What if someone comes in?”
“They won’t. Everyone is busy with some bus
accident that has just happened”
“Then we should be out there” Judi replied. She
walked away from Russell and towards the table in the staff room.
“What is wrong with us? Is it because I still
haven’t told Camille?” he asked.
“Yes, and no. I am sick of waiting around for
you Russell. This has been going on too long”
“Every time I try to tell her something happens
which stops me. Cleo
interrupts, the phone rings, someone is at the door”
“Russell, I know but it is just so difficult for
me, seeing you with her. You sleep bedside her at night, when I want you beside
me; she is the one you eat with, when I want us to be talking about our day at
work; she is the one you watch TV with and the one you do everything with. I am
only your bit on the side” Judi said. A tear started to well up in her eye, and
slowly ran down her cheek. It wasn’t easy being Russell’s mistress.
“I’m sorry” Russell muttered, as he hugged Judi.
She pulled away and looked into his dark eyes. He moved closer to her and their
lips met.
“Oh my god” came a voice from the door. Russell
and Judi turned to see that someone had witnessed their kiss.
Continue with Episode 14 – Knock on Effect