Previously...

Alex took the blame for Sierra in Nathan's stabbing, but Jordan and James saw through the rouse.  Nathan was taken to the hospital where he survived.  Alex made a last ditch attempt to convince Lola to tell the truth about the night she was raped, but Lola refused.  At the hospital, Alex described to Nathan how she wished him nothing but misery.  Victor arranged for Nathan to fly to China on his private jet, but David, James and Jordan switched planes and arranged for French Police to be waiting for Nathan when he was re-routed back to Paris.  He was taken into custody for rape charges in Paris. David told Brooke he remembered her from when she worked as a makeup counter clerk at the mall.  David and Miranda made love.  Seth and Leigh talked about a plan to use James in a money-making scheme.  Brett informed Seth that the Land Commission denied the variance he needed to drill onto a stretch of land in Costa Mesa.  Jack Fallmont hired Eddie to follow Adrienne whom he thought was having an affair.  Miranda unleashed her anger on Brooke.  The two struggled and Miranda took a violent fall, which caused her to have abdominal pains.  

Episode 67

"Once in a Lifetime"

The waiting room at Cedars-Sinai was full, everyone on pins and needles waiting for word from Dr. Mitchell on Miranda’s prognosis.  James, Stormy and Heather sat in a row of chairs against the window while Alex paced back and forth with a steaming cup of coffee gripped in her hands.  David Jenner stood in the corner with his arms folded, uncertain of whether his presence there was intrusive or not.  He and Miranda had a casual relationship consisting of a few bad dates and one magnificent night in bed.  Regardless, he had grown to care for her very much and he couldn’t think of anywhere else that he wanted to be. 

When Brett raced into the waiting room, all eyes landed on him.  His gaze immediately went to Heather and Stormy, holding hands beside one another across the room.  Rather than take time to brood over his forlorn feelings for her, he kept in check with what really mattered.  Miranda and their baby.

“I just heard about what happened,” he said quickly.  “How are they?”

“Nice of you to finally show up,” Stormy scoffed and shot to his feet.  “We’ve all been here for half an hour.  Where the hell have you been?  I thought you cared about the baby you tricked my sister into having.”

“Stormy, knock it off,” James ordered and followed him across the room.  He wasn’t thrilled with Brett’s actions leading up to the divorce, but he knew he had a right to be there as well as any of them.  He was the father of Miranda’s baby, after all.  

“I was at the racquetball club,” Brett announced without bothering to exchange the usual jabs with Stormy.  “Heather left me a message and I got here as soon as I could.”

“She’s in with Dr. Mitchell now,” James said.  “We still don’t know anything.”

“Well what happened?” Brett asked and ran his fingers through his blond hair.  “All they said was that she fell.”

“We’re still not sure,” James claimed.

“No, but apparently she was with Brooke when it happened,” Alex spat bitterly.  “She did this to my daughter.  That tramp you brought into this family.”

David listened inquisitively.  He wondered what Brooke did have to do with Miranda’s accident.  The woman he saw that morning in her hotel room wasn’t the monster that Alex Reynolds described.

“Alex, stop it.  We don’t know what happened,” James insisted.  “And throwing blame around isn’t going to help Miranda or my grandchild.”

Heather looked at Brett from across the room and couldn’t help but feel for him.  The look in his eyes reminded her of why she began to let her guard down with him in the first place.  Behind all that raw sexual energy and penchant for backstabbing, he was a truly compassionate and sensitive man.  That night she spent with him after her carjacking was both tender and exhilarating.  No man had made her feel the way he had.  Now his heart was breaking over his baby’s uncertain future.  Her heart went out to him. 

Just then, Dr. Mitchell entered the waiting room and looked sorrowfully at the gathering of vigils.  “I just came from talking to Miranda,” she announced. 

“How is she?” Alex asked in a panic.

“How is the baby?” Brett added.

Taking a breath, the doctor shook her head as if to brace them all for the bad news prior to delivering it.  “I’m afraid she lost the baby.”

A hush fell over the room and Brett felt his eyes sting with tears.  He held his breath, forcing himself to hold it together.  Stormy shook his head in sorrow and pulled Heather into an embrace.   Alex clung to James’ side and gasped, her hand clutching her chest in despair.

“I know how you all must feel,” Dr. Mitchell continued.  “In the first trimester, any number of things can go wrong.  In this case, the physical trauma from the fall halted the baby’s normal gestation period.”

“How is she, Dr. Mitchell?” David asked. 

“She’s visibly shaken.  The good news is that after completing my examinations, I don’t foresee there will be any problems with Miranda getting pregnant again in the future.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” James said appreciatively.  “Can we go in and see her?”

“Immediately family only,” Dr. Mitchell replied.  “And keep it brief.  She’s been through a lot.  I’d like to keep her here a day or so, but after that she should be fine.”

She left the room just as Brooke and Ethan entered.  All eyes landed on Brooke and she suddenly realized she was not a welcome sight.

Across town at Seth Walker’s private cabin at the Yacht Club, he and Leigh Purcell made love on the bed, sunlight filtering into the shaded room through wooden blinds.  Taking her with exceptional stamina and vigor, Seth smiled in satisfaction at the pleasured look on her face.  Marilee never looked that way when they made love anymore.  Her eyes never rolled back in her head and she never even made a sound.  He realized he’d probably spoiled her by hiring Brett Armstrong as his PR guy, and he knew full well that Marilee would sleep with him, he was just her type.  Hiring him proved to be a distraction for Marilee for a while at least, which was his intention from the start.  Better to have her satisfied and content with some young stud than start paying attention to his business dealings.  Her disinterest in sex with him was a small price to pay.

After they’d finished their acrobatic round of lovemaking, Leigh lit a cigarette and pulled the sheet over her chest. 

“That was the best one yet,” she said and blew a stream of smoke into the air. 

“Better than James Blackthorne?” Seth asked with a wink and started to get dressed.

Leigh eyed him flirtatiously and pushed her hair over her shoulder.   “If you want me to continue seeing him, you don’t get to ask me questions like that.”

“Well I want to know if I should be worried about the competition,” Seth grinned, zipping his trousers and leaning over to kiss her.   “I need you to get information from him, not fall in love with him.”

“Are you jealous?” Leigh asked. 

“Should I be?”

She laughed and stubbed out her cigarette.  Twisting off the bed with the sheet around her, she made her way to the bar and poured herself a glass of water.  “Not while you’re married to Marilee,” she declared.  “Besides, I’m not so sure that this arrangement with James is in our best interests.”

“And why is that?”

“I’m just not sure that Blackthorne-Reynolds is going to help us,” she explained.  “It’s still a relatively new company.  They have limited drilling capabilities, and besides, James has two partners.  His ex wife and Renee DeWitt have to agree on any ventures the company gets involved with.  This is a high-risk deal.  Not to mention the legal ramifications.  Judging from the way they conduct their personal lives, I don’t think they’re all going to go along with it.”

“That's why they will never know what deal they're really getting involved in.  Until it's too late," Seth added and slipped his crisp white shirt on over his tanned broad shoulders.  “There’s a lot of money in this for the both of us.  A lot of money.”

Leigh wished she hadn’t even brought James into the picture.  She had grown to care for him again very much.  She hadn’t thought about him in years, until she ran into his daughter in Acapulco.  She and Seth needed a partner and James seemed like the answer to their prayers.  Now she wasn’t sure if it was worth it.  Was she really falling in love with him?

Renee sat outside at the Yacht Club with Sierra.  She watched as her daughter lethargically nibbled on her salad with one elbow propping her head up on the table.  She waved the waiter away when he came to check on them, leaning across the table and trying to get the distraught young woman’s attention.

“Darling, aren’t you hungry?” she asked.

Sierra shook her head.  “Not really,” she admitted.

“Well that’s okay,” Renee replied.  “Would you rather do something else?  We could go to the movies or shopping.  Anything you want to do, baby, just name it.”

After hesitating briefly, Sierra finally looked into her eyes.  “Can we just go back to the hotel?”

Renee sighed and nodded with defeat.  She had had no luck in getting her daughter to snap out of her withdrawal since the incident with Nathan at the hotel.  The poor young woman was bottling all of her emotions up and hadn’t said a word about what happened in days.  The only saving grace was that she seemed to have forgiven her for not telling her the truth about her true parentage. 

Minutes later they were in the parking lot on the way to the car.  Renee unlocked the door and opened it slowly for Sierra.  A jagged piece of metal on the doorframe caught her skin resulting in a small surface wound on her forearm.  Before she could react, Sierra grabbed her mother’s arm and shrieked in horror.

“Mommy, your arm!” she cried hysterically as a trickle of blood appeared.  “You’re bleeding!”

“Sweetheart, it’s okay,” Renee said, alarmed by her daughter’s reaction.  She plucked a few tissues from her purse and wiped the wound clean.  “It’s just a little scrape.  See?  It’s fine.”

Sierra pulled Renee into an embrace and cried hysterically.   “Mommy, please don’t die.  Please don’t ever die.  I love you so much.  I don’t want anything to ever happen to you!”

Renee stroked the back of Sierra’s head, shocked by how troubled she had become over something so small.  She wondered if it might do her some good to see a therapist.  At least that way she’d be able to work through some of the feelings she was keeping inside.

Brooke and Ethan exchanged glances as they stood in the waiting room.  James knew that Brooke probably felt under fire with all eyes on her, and as much as he hated the sight of her and Ethan together, and hated the lies she’d told him about Michael, his compassionate side made him want to be there for her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Alex flew into a rage.  “Why are you asking her if she’s okay?” she demanded.  “She isn’t the one who’s lying in a hospital bed after losing her baby.”

Brooke covered her mouth with her hands and shook her head in despair.  “I am so sorry,” she said, horrified by what transpired after her and Miranda’s struggle in her hotel room.  “If there was any way I could take back what happened, I would, I swear.”

“What did happen, Brooke?” Stormy asked, positioned next to Heather.

“Look, Brooke didn’t do anything,” Ethan said.  “What happened to Miranda was terrible, but-“

“Ethan, it’s okay,” Brooke interrupted.   She turned back to James, Alex, and the others and cleared her throat awkwardly.  “Miranda came to my room this morning and we argued.  She was very angry with me for several reasons.  She said some very hurtful things and I slapped her.  She came at me and we struggled.  I pushed her away and she lost her balance and fell on one of Michael’s toys.  Before I knew it, she tumbled onto the coffee table, and that’s when I called the ambulance.”

“So you pushed her?” Stormy asked.

Brooke turned to Brett with tears in her eyes.  “Brett, I’m so sorry.  I promise you I never meant any of this to happen.  But she fell and I-“  She stopped, realizing there was no way to explain her actions.  It was her fault that Miranda lost the baby. 

Alex walked up and drew her hand back, slapping Brooke hard across the face.  “That’s for my daughter,” she said.

Brooke brought her hand up to her face, ignoring the stinging sensation.  Ethan pushed Brooke behind him and stood before Alex.  “That was uncalled for,” he said.  “How dare you attack Brooke.  It’s obvious that Miranda was the one who instigated the argument.  If she hadn’t gone to Brooke’s hotel room, none of this would have happened.”

“Ethan, that’s not fair,” Stormy chimed in. 

Brett stood back, still too shocked to react to anything going on.  He was in disbelief, the joy of having a baby on the way suddenly ripped away from him.

“Brooke didn’t hurt Miranda or her baby intentionally,” James said.  “Now can we all please stop arguing?”

“James, your wife has never liked Miranda,” Alex chimed in.  “Since the day she moved into the mansion she’s done nothing but make her life hell.  Or are you forgetting the time she called me crying and saying how much she hated living there with her?”

“That was a long time ago,” James said in frustration.  He felt like one family crisis had been solved with Nathan’s arrest, only to have another start right up again. 

“Brooke took your son away from you, James,” Alex continued.  “And now she’s taken away your grandchild.  How much more are you going to let her take from this family?”

“Alex, stop it!”

Devastated by the backlash of scrutiny, Brooke turned and raced back out of the waiting room.  Ethan ran after her, praying that she wouldn’t hold herself responsible for the tragedy. 

Back in the waiting room, David watched the dysfunction unfold with mild curiosity.  He’d grown up thinking his family was offbeat.  Now after witnessing the spectacle today, he was convinced they were normal after all.  Remaining invisible to the chaos, he quietly ducked out of the room.

“I’m going in to see Miranda,” James said.  “Alex, are you coming?”

She nodded breathlessly and followed fast on his heels. 

After they’d left, Stormy approached Brett and folded his arms.  “You can go now,” he said.  “Your role in my sister’s life is finally over.”

“Excuse me?” Brett asked with a frown.

“Stormy, don’t,” Heather cautioned him.  She knew this wasn’t the time.  Brett was obviously in a fragile state.  He didn’t need Stormy egging him on after the news he’d just been delivered.

“What?” Stormy asked.  “Heather, this is what we’ve been wanting.  He doesn’t have anymore ties to us.  He’s done.”

“I said not now,” Heather insisted. 

“If not now, when?” Stormy continued.  He turned to Brett and moved closer yet as if testing him.  “You can finally go back to Vegas or Sacramento or wherever the hell you come from and we can forget we ever knew you.  Your association with my family is finished, and so are you.”

Heather squinted hard, expecting another knock-down drag out dog fight to erupt at any second.  Whenever the two got together it was always the same story.  But to her surprise, Brett turned and walked out of the waiting room without another word. 

Stormy, notably disappointed in the lack of Brett’s reaction, threw his hands into the air and turned to his ex-wife.  “I’m going in to see Miranda.  Do you want to come?”

She scowled angrily at him.  “I’ll go later,” she said and started to the door.

“Heather, wait-“ he said and pulled her back gently.  “What’s wrong?”

“You honestly don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“I know you and Brett aren’t on each other’s Christmas card list, but was that really necessary?” she asked.  “It was not only hurtful to him, but it’s as if you’re glad that Miranda lost the baby for the sole reason of having Brett out of the picture.”

“Heather, that’s not what I meant,” Stormy said defensively.

She shook her head and shrugged him off of her.  “You know, you really haven’t changed at all.  You’re still the same old insensitive jerk that you’ve always been.”

Awed by her reaction, Stormy’s jaw hung open while he watched her race down the hall after Brett. 

Inside Miranda’s private hospital room, James and Alex sat on either side of the bed holding her hands gently in theirs.  She sobbed silently as her mother dabbed the tears from her eyes with a tissue.

“It isn’t as if I even wanted a baby,” Miranda said.  “I was shocked as anyone was to find out I was pregnant.  I wasn’t even going to keep it.  Do you think this is my punishment for considering having an abortion?”

“Darling, no,” Alex insisted.  “Don’t even think that for a second.  You would have been a wonderful mother and this baby would have been lucky to have you.  It just wasn’t the right time, that’s all.  Nothing you did made that happen.”

“Your mother’s right,” James said tenderly and caressed the side of Miranda’s cheek.  “It was a terrible accident and you’re not to blame.  Nobody is to blame.”

Miranda shook her head and sniffled.  “Except for Brooke.”

James and Alex exchanged glances.  “What do you mean, Miranda?” he asked.  “Brooke said that it was an accident.  She said you tripped on a toy of Michael’s.”

“She pushed me, Daddy,” Miranda said.  “She couldn’t stand me having a baby.  She was jealous of Biff.  She pushed me and she knew exactly what she was doing.”

“Now Miranda, I know you’re upset and I know this is a horrible thing that’s happened, but you can’t use this as an opportunity to make things difficult for Brooke.” 

“James, you heard what she said.  Brooke pushed her.  Now are you going to do anything about this or not?” Alex asked. 

Sighing, James rubbed the sides of his head and realized he was put in the middle of a very difficult situation.  “Look, I know the two of you were arguing this morning.  I know she slapped you and you struggled with her.  I think she pushed you away in defense and you fell.”

“She’s still a monster, Daddy,” Miranda claimed.  “You’re so lucky she left the house.  I know you’re upset about Michael and all, but believe me, Daddy, you’re better off without her.  The sooner you divorce her and get her out of our lives the better off we’ll all be.”

In the patio garden at the hospital, Ethan stood behind Brooke and struggled to find something to say to make the pain go away.