**Sorry I didn't post this on Monday as I promised. The week got away from me, but weekends are easier for me anyway so I'll be updating Saturday nights from now on 
**Episode 1: ConfrontationsScene One: Horton SquareJJ spots Eve approaching him from across the square. She wears a black winter coat with the collar turned up, almost obscuring her face. “Eve?” He snaps. “Do you really think this is the best place for us to meet?”
Eve hisses,
“Shhh! Just come with me already!”
Before JJ can protest, Eve grabs his arm and yanks him through the throng of afternoon shoppers, barely looking both ways as she does so. She pulls him right into the quiet and deserted south end of Salem Park.
JJ brushes her fingers off his arm, noting how her fingernails -
claws, he thinks
- have left deep indentations in his taut skin. “You wanted to talk?” He grumbles.
Eve nods. “Of course I did, JJ! We have to get our stories straight. If Paige ever finds out what happened last night…”
JJ shakes his head. “How could she? No one knows. No one was around. But it doesn’t matter, because she has a right to know. I promised her that I wouldn’t keep any more secrets and this one…”
“Shut up, JJ!” Eve snaps. “You’re not going to say a word to my daughter about us sleeping together. You know if she finds out, she will never, ever forgive either one of us!”
Little do Eve and JJ know that they've been overheard. Chad DiMera, hidden from view near a copse of trees, breaks into a wide grin.
~*~*~*
Scene Two: Clyde’s Motel RoomJordan has the gun aimed dead at Clyde’s chest although it’s visibly shaking in her hand.
“Put the gun down, Jordan. I said I was sorry. That ain’t enough for you?”
“Enough?
No! Do you really think ‘I’m sorry’ fixes anything? My god, Clyde, I was fifteen years old!”
Clyde shrugs. “I told you. I know I was wrong.”
Jordan is near sobbing. Tears are streaming down her face.
“Wrong? It was more than wrong, you b**tard. It was rape!” The gun tremors in her hand. “When I think of what you did… God, you make me sick… You made your fortune selling me to your friends like a freaking broodmare.” She cocks the pistol again. “I am going to blow you away. Nothing is going to stop me this time.”
Clyde’s lips twitch in a nasty smirk. “Not even if I tell you what really happened with your dear Mama? Come on, Tammy Sue, do you really want
two murders on your dainty little white hands?"
~*~*~*
Scene Three: Dining Room at The Brady PubAbigail looks between Kayla and Ben and then back at the older woman. “How did this happen, Kayla? I thought the hospital wanted nothing to do with me after that stunt Sami pulled.”
Kayla looks at Abby, and briefly at Ben. “Well, there was someone in your corner pulling for you.”
Abby’s eyebrows raise. “Really? Who?”
Kayla sighs. “Someone on the hospital board.”
“Who? Why are you being so vague here, Kayla?”
Kayla glances at Ben again. “It’s just this person on the board; the one who got you your job back… It was Chad DiMera.”
Abby’s heart slams to a painful stop. “What?”
Ben balls his hands into fists at his sides. “Son of a b****!”
~*~*~*
Scene Four: Salem ParkChad, having heard enough keeps grinning as he places his hands into the pockets of his trousers and saunters away, whistling triumphantly under his breath.
Eve snaps, “Do you hear me, JJ? You can’t say one word about what we did – not to anyone!”
JJ rubs a hand down his face. “I don’t know if I can keep this quiet, Eve. Paige doesn’t deserve to be lied to.”
“Oh, and you think I like lying to her? Of course, I don’t, but I don’t want to hurt her. You know that my daughter would never, ever understand why we did what we did. Hell, I still don’t know why we did it.”
JJ rolls his eyes. “God, me either… I mean, we were upset, but it’s no excuse. I
love Paige.”
“I love her,” Eve challenges. “She’s my daughter. We betrayed her, and I just feel sick over the whole thing. She will never forgive me for sleeping with her first boyfriend.”
She grabs JJ by the lapels of his jacket. “Swear to me, right here and right now, that you will never, ever tell Paige or anyone else that you sexed me up!”
JJ’s eyes go wide. “I – I … Wait, I didn’t-”
“You kissed me, JJ!”
“Only because you kissed me first!”
“Why, you little-”
JJ shoots up a hand to stop her. “You know what? It doesn’t matter who kissed who first. The problem is, we did kiss and did a lot more than that too. Paige will never understand or accept what we did. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t either.”
“Damn right she won’t understand or accept it. She’ll hate us both! Now, do you see why she can never, ever know?”
JJ sighs. “Yeah, I guess I can see that.” Against his better judgment, he says, “I won’t tell.”
“Thank god! Now just let’s go our separate ways, okay, and forget this ever happened.”
“Gladly,” he says as she hurries away from her, but he knows forgetting it will be easier said than done.
~*~*~*
Scene Five: Dining Room at The Brady PubBen looks half-ready to throttle the first person who walks in the door. “What a total punk! Chad DiMera is-”
Abby holds up a hand. “The only one who could get my job back.”
Ben’s mouth gapes open in shock. “Oh my god… You’re not serious… I mean, you’re not thinking of taking the job?”
“Ben-”
“No. This is insanity, Abby. You take that job back and Chad will never be out of your hair – out of
our hair."
Kayla looks between them with a grimace. “I think I should go. You two need to talk about this without me. And just talk about it - no yelling or throwing around accusations.”
“I can be calm,” Abby says pointedly.
Ben rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.
Kayla offers Abby a pat on the shoulder. “I’ll see you later, sweetie.” She offers Ben a little smile. “You take care, Ben."
Once Kayla is gone, Abby reaches for Ben’s arm, but he quickly shakes free of her grasp.
“Ben, come on.”
“No, you come on, Abby! If you go back to your old job, you’re playing right into Chad’s hands. He wants to show me up; prove that he’s Mr. Rich and Powerful and that I can’t compete with him.”
“I already told you. You don’t need to compete with him. I’m with you, Ben. I chose you, remember? I thought we were solid.”
Ben groans. “Well, I thought so too.”
“Look, Chad won’t be a problem unless you let him become one.”
“I don’t trust him, Abigail.”
“Do you trust me? Or do you – God, do you think I’m just the faithless little slut everyone else around here does?”
Ben quickly replies, “I don’t think that, Abby. Of course not.”
“Then you need to trust me when I say that I have no interest in anything to do with Chad DiMera.
However, I do need a job and I loved my job so yes, I am going back to it.”
“No way. You can’t.”
“Ben, I don’t want to hurt you here, but –”
Ben spits out, “Yeah, of course you don’t.” He jumps up from this chair and stalks towards the door.
Abby stands up to follow after him. “Ben, wait! Ben, where are you going? Come on!” Realizing people are staring at her, she sighs and decides to let him go.
~*~*~*
Scene Six: Clyde’s RoomJordan has tears running down her face in earnest now. Clyde eyes the gun shaking in her trembling hands, but makes no attempt to fight Jordan for it. Instead, he holds up his hands for a moment.
“You killed your Mama, Tammy Sue. There was no mistake. There wasn't no accidental slip of your fingers either. You grabbed a gun and you killed her in cold blood. You killed your own Mama in a fit of rage!”
Jordan vehemently shakes her head. “No, no, no. That’s not how it was. I got a hold of the gun, just to keep you from sending me upstairs with another one of your ‘friends’. Mama came in…”
“And she saw you were crying. She saw you were hysterical and do you remember, little girl, how you ran to her and told her what I was doing with you? And she –”
Jordan’s whole body surrenders to the force of her sobs. She sags down. “And she – she didn’t believe me! Even with that monster ‘Hank the Tank’ standing there, breathing all over my neck, making me feel sick.”
“Oh it was more than that, honey,” Clyde taunts. “She said you were
lying. That I would never, ever do a thing like that. She told you to put the gun down and you didn’t. You shot her point blank in the chest, not even two paces between you. She didn’t have a chance.”
“Nooooo!” Jordan screams. She has a distant look on her face. She’s reliving the horrible episode from her youth all over again. She remembers the fear and the pain. Not having her mother believe her was the worst kind of hell.
“Oh yes, Tammy Sue. She looked you right in the eyes and called your bluff. And you saw red and you killed her. Wasn’t no accident. You were purposeful and what’s that word – methodical? Yes, that’s it. You got blood all over your hands, darlin’.”
“I didn’t mean to-” Jordan breaks off as Clyde suddenly jumps on her, wrenching the gun from her hand. There is a major scuffle then and the gun goes off. We see Jordan in slow motion slide to the floor as Clyde triumphantly holds up the pistol.
