Episode 111, originally published 27-Sep-98

Plot Re-Pairs

Sharon is in Intimate Secrets shopping when Grace comes in. "Hi, Grace," Sharon says, noticing her. "Oh, hi, Share," Grace says, feeling a little awkward about being spotted. "What are you doing here?" "I came to exchange this for something in red," Sharon explains, holding up a purple outfit. "Nick apparently really likes red." The sales person approaches. "Can I help--oh, hello!" she says to Grace, recognizing her. "You were in here the other day shopping for your honeymoon," she says. Grace blushes and nods. "Yes, I--" she starts to say, when Sharon butts in. "Grace, I didn't hear about this. That's wonderful." Grace pretends to be pleased, too. "Thanks." The sales person asks, "Did you come to return something?" "Uh, no," Grace says. "I'd just like to exchange this. Do you have it in red?" The sales person nods, and takes the item away. "What a coincidence," Sharon says. "What's that?" Grace asks, distracted. "Both of our men liking red." Grace nods, still distracted. "Yeah, they really do have a lot in common," she says cryptically. The sales person returns with the same thing red; Grace examines it, and makes to leave. "I have to run, Share. See ya." "Bye, Grace." When she's gone, the salesperson says to Sharon, "I bet that Nick's going to love it." "Nick? What?" "Oh, sorry. Her fiance." "Grace's?" "Yes, didn't you know?" "Uh, no, actually I didn't. But thanks. Thanks very much. I must remember to send them a gift."

Victor stands in the hallway outside Diane's, checking his watch. "Well, Michael Shyster Baldwin, they should have had plenty of time to kidnap you by now," he mumbles. "That should teach you to underestimate with Victor Newman." He knocks on Diane's door.

Cricket is with Paul at home, going through some photo albums. "Look, here's that newspaper photo of you and your father with Cassandra Rawlins after you rescued her. Tell me more about him," she says. "Who?" Paul says, distracted by the photo of Cassandra. "Your father, of course," Cricket says. "Chris, you keep asking. Can't you just drop it? Leave him in peace. I'm sure he'd want it that way," Paul said. Cricket sighs.

Victoria and Neil are coming home to the apartment and are suprised to be greeted at the door by Lily, who's saying "Daddy, Daddy. Mommy's here!" They stop and look to Dru who looks back at Neil and then Victoria. Her eyes drift down to Victoria's belly. She raises her eyebrows, curious. Just then, Victoria winces and says, "Ohmigod!" Neil turns to her worried and says, "What is it? Victoria?" "Neil, I think it was a contraction." "A contraction?" he asks. "But we're not even married yet." "Damn straight you ain't married," Dru says. "'Cuz you're still married to me!" Victoria looks to Dru and says, "Could you just save it for a while. I think I need to go to the hospital."

"I thought we should talk," Victor says, as Diane reluctantly lets him in. Just then, Michael enters. "I think that's a bad idea," Michael says. "What the--" Victor says. "I said it's time for you to leave," Michael urges. "Anything you have to say to my client, you can do through me." Victor storms out.

Cricket is still with Paul looking at the photo album. "Paul, I just don't know if I CAN leave it alone. I--wait a minute. This is odd." "What's that?" Paul asks. "The date on this newspaper." Paul looks at the paper. "I don't see any problem. That looks like the date this happened." Cricket frowns. "But it's in 1990." Paul says, "So?" "So?" Cricket says with amazement. "I was just down at the police station going through your dad's file." Paul stands and looks surprised. "You went through Dad's file? I didn't give permission for that." Cricket stands and walks in circles nervously as she speaks. "I had to, Paul. And the guys at the station, they were just trying to be helpful. Only there were letters in the file--they said your dad was getting them just before he disappeared." "Right," Paul says. "I remember that. So?" "Well, the letter I saw was dated June 12, 1987. That's more than a few months before 1990. Something's weird here. And not just that. I was recently passing through Norfolk, Virginia, and I saw a man who looked just like your father. Paul, I think I have proof your father is still alive!"

Diane looks to Michael. "Where WERE you?" she asks. "I was calling and calling." "I, uh, got tied up," Michael says. Diane paces. "Don't joke, Michael. Victor was looking like he just might do something like that." "Who says he didn't?" Michael asks. "You're not serious," Diane says. "I am, actually," Michael says. "Three thugs attacked me and threw me in the back of their trunk. I think they were going to have me beaten or killed." "Michael, please. You're scaring me." "It scared me, too," Michael says. "Thank goodness for cell phones, though," he continues, pulling his out of his pocket as `show and tell'. "So I called the police and gave them the make of the car. They pulled over the car and sprung me. That should teach Victor not to underestimate me!"

In the car, Dru is driving and Lily is sitting next to her. Neil and Victoria are in the back. "Couldn't you go a little faster?" Neil asks. "You want me to get in an accident?" Dru asks. "No, I just want to not have to deliver the baby here in the car." Dru hands Lily the phone. "Call Auntie Olivia and tell her we need her to deliver Neil's little indiscretion when we get to the hospital." "What's an in-disc--?" "Never mind, sweetie. Just say `baby'. She'll know what I mean," Dru says. "It's not Neil's," Victoria says. "Oh, yeah? Right. Whose is it then?" Dru says. "Cole's, if you must know," Victoria says. "He divorced you while you were with child?" "He didn't know. I didn't tell him." Dru shakes her head. "My, my, my. You are just a paragon of responsibility, aren't you? And you did what to your husband? You LIED about a child? My goodness, how my husband surprises me sometimes. I thought he couldn't brook a LIE... Perhaps it's easier to forgive when you have lily white skin like Victoria." Lily looks confused. "But my skin is black." Dru just pats her on the head.

Paul sighs and glares at Chris. "You had to meddle didn't you?" "What?" she asks, surprised by his attitude. "I was just trying to help." "But I kept asking you not to." "But Paul, it's YOUR father." "I know it's my father. And, if you must know, we're still in touch." "But you never talk about him." "Of course I don't talk about him!" Paul says. "It's a secret that he's still alive!" "A secret from your mom?" "Who else? He left mom in 1987. He just got tired of her and left. But he comes back to Genoa City now and then to fight crimes--he misses that part of life here." "But Paul, your mother thinks he's dead." "That's what he wants her to think. He couldn't bear divorcing her, and anyway, he found another woman." "Well, that must have been a neat trick. Didn't he mention he was married?" "It didn't come up." "Didn't come up?" Pauls shrugs. "He says he told her he has amnesia. Apparently, it saved having to answer a lot of dumb questions. And it gives him cover if he's later discovered by someone--as you almost did. Now will you let it go and please not mention anything to anyone about the inconsistency in the timeline? The reason I wanted his file sealed was so no one would notice the obvious fact that he'd been around long after he supposedly disappeared."

At the hospital, the baby is coming out. Olivia and Neil and Dru look on. "Oh, my," Olivia says. "Someone's got a lot of explaining to do." She looks to Neil, who looks to Dru and shrugs helplessly. Olivia hands Victoria the baby, which we now see is black. "Victoria, may I present you with your son." Victoria blushes visibly. Then Olivia looks to Dru and says, "I think we should leave these two a bit of privacy." The two exit.

"Victoria, this child is black. What's going on here. You told me it was Cole's." Victoria looks very embarrassed. "Well, I guess I was wrong." "Wrong? How can you be wrong about that kind of thing? Am *I* wrong in believing that we never had sex?" "No, but--Neil, I guess it happened while I was on that business trip. There was this one guy. He was pretty hunky. And we did have too much to drink and--well, it was only that one time, with that guy Reggie. And we weren't serious. So I figured it was probably nothing. Kinda funny, huh? No wonder I was early." "Victoria, there's nothing funny about this. You lied to me. You told me this baby was Cole's." "But so what? This is even better. Everyone can think it's yours." "Everyone but me. I'll know it's not mine. I can't lie to people that way." "So what? You're going to leave me over this?" "Have you left me any choice? Anyway, it just so happens I still have a beautiful wife. And I think maybe I'll keep her after all."

In a tastefully funished apartment we don't recognize, a phone rings. The camera pans around the room to the phone as a hand reaches out to answer it. "This is Beatrice," comes the confident-sounding voice, as the camera catches up. She wears an expensive silk robe that betrays nothing we know of her street-person persona. "Katherine Chancellor here," a voice responds from the other end of the line. "Yes, Mrs. Chancellor," Beatrice says in a very business-like tone, "is there a problem?" "None that I'm aware of," Katherine says. "I was just calling to make sure everything was ready at your end for the hearing tomorrow. Mitchell Sherman has been over everything with you?" "Yes, Mrs. Chancellor. Everything is ready."

Neil arrives in his office to find a very stern Victor waiting. "I understand my daughter had a baby," Victor says. Neil nods. "Yes, sir. That's right." "A little black baby," Victor says. "That's right, sir." "I should think you'd be pleased." "Well, I am sir, but--" "Yet I understand you have left her." "Yes, sir, that's right, I--" "Well, I don't think that's very good behavior, do you?" "Well, you see, sir, I--" "So you're telling me you're going to stand by my daughter?" "Well, you see, sir. She lied." "Yes, apparently she did. She told me this baby was Cole's when it was yours." "No, sir. It--" "Neil, I want you out of here. Pack your things. Your services here are no longer required."

In the courtroom, John Silva has called Beatrice Tucker. "Now, Ms. Tucker, I show you this document labled plaintiff's exhibit A. You witnessed the signing of this document, did you not?" Beatrice nods. "Yes, that's right." "So you can confirm that it was Phillip Chancellor's will that Jill have the house." "Well, I don't know if I can do that," Beatrice says. "I didn't actually read the document, you see. I do know that Phillip Chancellor liked Mrs. Abbot, does that help?" John frowns. "Well, I'm sure Ms. Abbot finds that a very comforting piece of information but it's not the issue here. Let me just ask, is this your signature here?" "Oh, yes. Yes, it is," Beatrice says. "You're sure?" John says. "Oh, yes, I'm quite sure of that. It's my signature all right." John smiles. "Thank you, Ms. Tucker." He turns to Mitchell. "Your witness." Mitchell rises and says, "No questions." The judge nods and turns to John. "Call your next witness," he says. "The plaintiff rests," John says.

"We call Cassie Johnson," Mitchell says. Cassie steps up and is sworn in. "Now, Miss Johnson, you've recently been doing a lot of chemistry experiments at school, is that right?" he asks. She nods. "That's right. It's really cool. They gave us all kinds of chemicals. And we solved mock murders and things like that. When I'm old enough to run for office, I'm thinking of leaving my law practice and running for District Attorney," she says. Then suddenly she looks worriedly to Doris in the audience and says, "If Mrs. Collins can spare me, that is." Doris nods understandingly and Cassie breathes a sigh of relief. "Now, I refer you to the document we're referring to as Plaintiff's exhibit A. Do you recognized it and have you examined it?" Cassie pulls out a box of crayons and compares the color of one of them to a smudge on the bottom corner of the front page. "Yes, it has my mark on it," she says. "And what did your examination determine?" he asks. "I used lots of cool tricks they taught us in class, and found out the paper it's written on is only about one year old." There is a murmur in the court room and Jill explodes. "She's saying I forged this. She's lying! John, do something! She's lying!"

The court has been calmed down and Cassie is still on the stand. John Silva is now questioning Cassie. "So, it's your contention that my client has forged this document?" John asks. "I never said that," Cassie says. "But you implied it." "I implied the document is not authentic," Cassie says. "There are many ways that it could happen." "Can you suggest another?" John asks. "Certainly," she says. "The document might be a fake." "A fake? How is that different than a forgery?" "A forgery would have the intent to defraud." "But isn't that what you're suggesting here?" John says. "Not really," Cassie says. Then she turns to the judge and says, "Your honor, could I call a witness of my own just to clarify?" The judge eyes her carefully and says, "Well, it is a bit unusual, but I suppose..." Cassie motions to Doris who wheels forward and hands Cassie her "Cindy" doll. "This is Cindy," Cassie explains. "She looks like my real friend Cindy from Madison. But she's not a forgery of the real Cindy. She's just a small copy. I guess you could call her a fake Cindy. But since I don't use her to defraud anyone, you couldn't call her a forgery." She hands the doll back to Doris, who rolls back. John tries to figure out how to proceed. "So you're saying there could be some innocent purpose to this document, even though it's not authentic?" "I guess so," Cassie says. "You could ask Mrs. Chancellor. I understand Jill stole the document from Mrs. Chancellor's house." Jill rises and shouts again. "I didn't steal it. It was mine! Your honor, this little tramp is libelling me." Cassie sighs. "My words are spoken, not written, so it would be slander, not libel. But anyway, since I'm not lying I don't think you can back that up. I think you should just ask Mrs. Chancellor."

Meg and Trisha are at Crimson Lights for lunch. They each pull out scripts from a few months ago when Meg was warning Trisha about Ryan and they use the identical dialog to have Trisha scold Meg about Tony. Who would ever have guessed a few name changes and a repeated plot would be so gripping? Too bad this episode is running long and I don't have time to include it in excruciating detail, though, huh? Well, maybe next time. (Bet you can't wait.)

Mitchell Sherman is now interrogating Katherine. "So you recognize this document, Exhibit A?" "Yes, of course I do." "And where did it come from?" "It was for a party I was thinking about hosting. You know, like those little mystery parties where someone gets murdered. I had the document made for a party--just for fun--back when Jill and I were on speaking terms. I thought it would be fun to pretend to be murdered and have this be a piece of the evidence. It was all in good fun. The signature for Phillip is faked, but the rest is real. But it wasn't ever intended to be offered in evidence. It was just supposed to be a party favor. But then things got ugly between Jill and me, and I had the documents locked up in the attic. How was I to know they would be stolen by Jill?" "Objection," John says. "It has not been shown that the documents were stolen." "Appropriated then," Katherine says. "It amounts to the same. The documents were in my house. They were not Jill's property. And she admits she took them without asking." "Just one more question, Katherine," Mitchell says. "You can attest personally to the false nature of these documents?" Katherine nodes. "Yes, of course." "Forger!" Jill says. "She's saying she forged them!" The judge bangs a gavel. "Mr. Silva, please control your client or I will ask the bailiff to have her muzzled." John says, "Yes, your honor." Mitchell sits down and John says, "We'd like to call a rebuttal witness, Your Honor. Ms. Beatrice Tucker."

Beatrice is on the stand. "Ms. Tucker, did you not swear that this was your signature on the document?" "I did. But I didn't say when I'd signed it." "Yes, I'm aware of that. But you did tell Jill Abbott that Phillip had left some papers in the attic." "That's true. But I didn't say which ones. And I certainly didn't expect her to go and get them. Mrs. Chancellor had called me and told me she'd pay me a great deal of money just to remind Jill." "So you're saying Katherine wanted Jill to find them." "Maybe she did. Maybe she didn't. I don't know. Is it illegal to tell someone there's something in your house that they might then want to steal? I think people are still obliged not to steal things even if they know they're there." "But your signature here. It says--" "It says I watched the document being signed. It doesn't say I read the document. It doesn't say the people who signed it were the people whose signatures were added. But if you ask me, it was all in fun. Mrs. Abbott should never have stolen those documents. It's her own greedy fault she's embarrassed herself in this way."

At the hotel on the trip, Grace and Sharon are down at the bar together. "Well, I'm off," Sharon says. "Off?" "Yes, didn't Nick tell you? I'm taking an overnight flight back home. Cassie is sick and I have to be with her." "Oh, that's too bad," Grace says, trying to sound sad. "Can I drive you?" "No, the taxi's waiting. See you, Grace." She heads out of the bar. Grace lingers, obviously pondering her good fortune.

Up in their room, though, Sharon has not left. She enters to find Nick studying. "Honey, I'm not feeling well. Could I send you out to the store to get me some medicine?" "Sure, baby. What do you need?" Sharon writes something on a pad of paper and hands it to him. "It may be hard to find," she says. "If you don't find it at one place, please try a few others." "Don't worry, Sharon. If it can be found, I'll find it." He heads out. Immediately, Sharon undresses and enters the bed. Reaching up to a switch overhead, she turns off the light. The room is dark.

"Nick?" comes Grace's soft voice from the hotel door. "Don't get up," she whispers as she enters and the door closes. There is no sound for a moment and then we can see by a dim light through the window that she's dropped her clothing and is wearing only one of the items she got at Intimate Secrets. She slides quietly into bed and--"Hey!" Grace yells. The lights snap on and Sharon sits up. Grace is confused and asks, "Where's Nick? What are you doing here?" "I cancelled my trip." "You what?" Grace says. "I wasn't feeling well. So I sent Nick out to get some medicine for me. Now what about you? What are you doing here in my husband's bed in a see-through negligee?" "Well, I--uh,--I thought it was my and Tony's room." "But Tony's not here on this trip. And when you came in the door, you whispered Nick's name." "Did I? Well, it's late, and I must have just gotten confused. I miss Tony so terribly."

Sharon shakes her head disdainfully. "I'm not buying it, Grace. You told the sales lady at that store you were buying that outfit for Nick and now here you are. Now you get your little scheming butt out of here and don't you ever let me see you flirting with Nick again or I promise you, your job at Newman Enterprises won't last 5 minutes!" Grace starts to rise when the door opens and Nick enters carrying a small pharmacy bag. He stares at the two of them together in bed. "Sharon! Grace? I can't believe this," he says. "Now I understand why you both were so insistent about being on this trip with me. And here I trusted you both." There is a chorus of "Nick, it's not how it looks" from the women in the bed, but he slams the door and rushes out.

Back in Genoa City, in the courtroom, everyone awaits the Judge's ruling. "I find, as a matter of law, that the documents presented are false and therefore Jill Abbott has no claim on the property in question. Further, while there is some evidence of mischief on the part of Mrs. Chancellor, I see no law that has been broken by her. As for Mrs. Abbott, I'll leave it to the District Attorney to decide whether to arrest her and prosecute her on a charge of larceny." The DA steps forward and says, "The DA has no plans to prosecute." The judge then says "That concludes our business, then. Court is adjourned."

Outside the courtroom, reporters swarm around little Cassie. "Ms. Johnson, do you have a comment?" "Yes, I do. Just one thing. When I'm District Attorney, people won't be just walking away untried on clear cases of larceny. So watch out, criminals of the world. Your days are numbered. In just about 3650 days, you'll have me to answer to!"

That's all for this episode. Hope you learned something. Don't miss Episode 112!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.

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