By Marcie
Chapter Three
After Brooke dropped Jason at his hotel she stopped back at Tempo. That damn nausea was back with a vengeance. Every time her stomach was empty she felt sick. It reminded her of the time she was pregnant with Jamie, she had terrible morning sickness. "Thank God this isn't morning sickness," she thought. "That's all I need." She laughed at the thought.
At her age a pregnancy would be a miracle, not to mention the trouble she had with infertility. She laughed again and then began to mentally count back to her last period. She wondered if she had put it on her calendar, but when she checked she hadn't. Her periods had become irregular as she got older and she didn't pay much attention anymore. She knew it had been a while, but didn't know how long.
She had made love to Edmund not too long ago and hadn't used protection, but then they'd made love for months without it. She began to daydream about that night with Edmund. They had been working late at her house on the stupid amnesia story. God what a fool she had been to get involved in that story. They had been joking after a while and laughing like old times, and impulsively she had grabbed him and kissed him. At first she thought he would pull away, but he didn't. He had kissed her hungrily and pressed her body into his and then he had started unbuttoning her blouse. She was consumed with desire for him and never even thought to stop him, in fact she was tearing at his buttons trying to get his shirt off. She blushed as she thought about how passionately they had made love that night, and more than once.
Edmund walked in just as she was imagining him in bed with her. She blushed again and said, "I was just getting ready to go home. Can I help you with something?"
"Yeah. Tell me about Jason and what he wants," he said.
"He's here for information about Proteus. He wants me to help him investigate and I said I would."
"No. You're not going to help him Brooke. Proteus is too dangerous. We've talked about this before," he said, exasperated.
"No. We never talked about it, you just decided to shut me out. I didn't like it then and you're not going to keep me out now. You have no right to tell me what to do. You're my partner, not my husband."
Her words were like a punch in the stomach. He had been her husband, but he threw it away when he went back to Maria. He stood there looking at her, recognizing that look of defiance on her face that he knew so well. He wasn't going to be able to talk her out of this one. He decided to try another tack. "So why don't you let me help too? You know we're a team and work best that way. I have all the information I collected from last fall and I can share it all with the two of you," he said, satisfied.
"I'll take the information you collected, but I don't think it's a good idea for us to work on this story together. Look what happened last time we worked together, we ended up in bed together." She laughed, but it came out choked. She was feeling like she was going to puke any minute.
He looked at her pained, but she couldn't tell what he was thinking. She didn't care what he was thinking, she just wanted to go home and get in bed. She was feeling sick and exhausted and listening to Edmund go on and on was making it worse. "I'm going home," she said finally. "Turn the light out when you're done."
She got up to get her coat, but had to grab the desk to keep from losing her balance. She felt weak and dizzy. Edmund rushed over and grabbed her. "Brooke, what is it? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm fine. I just got up a little too fast, that's all," she said.
"Brooke, you don't look well. I noticed it earlier when I came in. You're probably coming down with the flu or something. I'm taking you home Brooke, I don't want you driving."
She decided not to argue with him. She didn't think she could drive herself home anyway. She was going to have to see a doctor and find out what was wrong with her. It was probably the flu and she would take tomorrow off and sleep all day.
They drove in silence, both deep in their thoughts. Brooke was thinking about how wrong her life had gone. Things had spun out of control, just like they always did in her love life. She had lost the love of her life twice, now, and both times had been her fault. She wondered for the millionth time if things would've turned out differently had she been honest about seeing Maria. Would she still be married to Edmund or would she have lost him anyway? She just didn't know.
Edmund was also lost in thought. He couldn't stop thinking about how screwed up everything was. He should be ecstatic with his life, Maria was back, she was living with him at Wildwind, his kids had their mommy. But the adjustment had been so difficult for all of them. He had changed so much over the last five years and so had she. The kids weren't used to her being around and it seemed like there was just so much tension. Normally he would've talked to Brooke about it, but now he couldn't and wouldn't do that to her. And he had hurt Brooke so badly and he felt terrible about it. Every time he looked at her face he saw the pain that he put there and it was eating him up.
"Edmund, you're going to miss the turn," Brooke yelled.
Startled, he looked up and realized he was coming up to her street. "Sorry, I was lost in thought." He pulled up in front of her house. He got out and opened her car door. He followed her inside.
"Thanks for bringing me home. I really appreciate it. And I won't be in tomorrow. I'm going to spend the day in bed and see if I can get rid of this bug, whatever it is," Brooke said.
"Okay, that sounds like a good idea. Is there anything I can get you?" He asked.
"No, Jamie and Aunt Phoebe are here, I'll be fine." He stood, hesitating.
"Go home to your wife and children Edmund. It's not your job to worry about me anymore," she said.
He looked at her and saw that she meant it. She was so beautiful in every way and he ached for her. He wanted her in his life the way she used to be. He needed his best friend now more than ever and he wanted to hold her. He wanted to bring her chicken soup in bed and watch an old movie with her, or just hold her while she slept. Instead he said, "Good night Brooke. I hope you feel better soon."
"Good night Edmund. Thanks again for driving me home." She shut the door and leaned against it. Only then did she let the tears come and she had a nice, long, cleansing cry.
To be continued... check back later for chapter four