"I did what you told me to do," Barry argued. He told Adam that he'd had no idea that Tad and Adrian were related because they did not share the same last name or a "family resemblance." Terror crept into the attorney's heart when Adam asked him to contact two men by the names of Bruno and Rolf to handle the situation.
Inside the office of Leslie Coulson, Adrian and Tad's snooping mission took an unexpected turn. From behind, a voice bellowed, "Move one muscle, and you're dead men." The mysterious figure shoved a pointed object into Tad's back. Sensing no immediate danger, Tad looked over his shoulder and smirked. "What are you going to do?" he asked sassily, "Clean us to death?" The object that had been jammed into the small of his back was a handheld vacuum cleaner.
Upon seeing the intruders' faces, the woman immediately recognized Tad. Tad claimed that he and Adrian, who he referred to as a famous director named Adrian O. Stiletto, had broken into the office as part of a special investigation for The Cutting Edge. The maintenance woman, who went by the name Roberta, bought the lie and immediately enlisted the "famous director's" feedback on a screenplay she'd been writing. The two men had no other choice but to listen to portions of Roberta's manuscript; if they didn't, she said that she'd call security.
After hearing the very lengthy play, Adrian offered some suggestions on how to make the story flow better. Overjoyed with inspiration, Roberta dashed out of the office to do a rewrite. Tad and Adrian returned their attention to the folder that they, or rather Adrian, had been sent to retrieve. A gloved hand reached into the room through the slightly ajar door and turned out the lights. Two shadowy figures dashed into the room, clobbered Adrian and Tad, and just as quickly disappeared.
Adrian reached out a stranglehold on someone, but when he flicked on the lights, he realized that he'd accidentally grabbed Tad. The folder that they'd been reading was gone. Adrian told Tad that he was sure that Barry had sent the two thugs and blasted Tad for compromising the mission. Tad, however, decided that he had to go to Liza and tell her that Adam was up to his old tricks.
The first leg of their adventure took Brooke and Jack to the Comedy Closet. Jack practically drooled as he complimented Brooke on the way she'd looked on the motorcycle. On stage, a balding, slightly stocky man appeared and announced that the club was holding an open mike night. Brooke looked at the man and instantly recognized him as the faux Axel Green. Just as she leaned over to tell Jack that Axel Green was not the man's real name, Albert introduced himself to the crowd as Axel Green.
Brooke laughed hysterically, musing that he had to have changed his name. Brooke and Jack both took turns teasing one another about going on stage and delivering a few jokes. In the end, both agreed that they'd give it a try. After one audience member finished his routine, Jack rose from the table and shouted that Brooke wanted to be the next comic. Brooke's eyes widened slightly. She either hadn't thought that Jack would take their pact seriously or she just didn't think that it would be her turn so soon.
Axel recognized Brooke and told her that it was a great honor to have her in the club. Once on stage, Brooke flubbed a joke several times before finally getting on track. The joke consisted of a chicken -- which she inadvertently referred to as a duck on several occasions -- going to a library and asking the library for a "buck," the chicken's noise. The librarian asked the chicken why he wanted a book but gave him a book anyway. The joke repeated at least seven times, and each time the chicken added one more "buck" to his request. One heckler in the audience grew tired of the joke and started hassling Brooke.
Jack stormed the stage and rattled off a few put-downs at the heckler before taking the microphone and doing an impromptu comedy routine. "Who here has slept with Erica Kane?" Jack cracked. Nearly every hand in the audience flew into the air. Jack surveyed the hand-raisers, at one point chuckling, "Brooke English. Who knew?!"
Jack was a hit and received, in addition to loud applause from the audience, a bottle of cheap wine for being the best comic of the night. Jack asked Brooke to finish her joke, but he might have reconsidered the request if he had known the punch line. Apparently, the chicken wanted the books because he was reading them to a frog at a nearby pond. To every book the chicken picked out, the frog remarked, "Reddit."
Back at Chandler Mansion, Barry's hired henchmen handed Adam the folder they'd recovered from Leslie's office. Adam snatched the folder from Barry and rummaged through its contents to see exactly what David had been hiding. Sure enough, there was a letter inside addressed to Liza. In the letter, David told Liza that he would not be "silenced... in death." Adam crumpled up the paper as he read the lines where David revealed that Jake was not the father of Liza's baby. Barry urged Adam to tell Liza the truth once and for all. Adam knew that he had to tell the truth but said that he would only do so when he felt it was the right time.
David walked into the bar area and found his mother alone at a table, sipping brandy. Against his better judgment, he sat down at the table with Vanessa. Vanessa warned David that he had found himself a "very powerful enemy." Instead of being afraid, David laughed in the face of danger. It took Vanessa only a few moments to determine that David had to have something big on Adam.
Liza entered the bar from a side entrance and froze upon seeing the mother and son team. She took a deep breath and continued on her way across the bar toward her mother and Opal. There, Liza and Opal exchanged their thoughts and feelings about Vanessa Bennett. Neither trusted her, although Opal was more forward with her dislike. Liza mentioned that she was certain that Vanessa had alerted the media on the night of Erica's infamous breakdown at Pine Valley High.
Across the room, Vanessa sensed that she and David were being watched. She looked over and muttered to her son that they had an audience. David smiled, prompting his mother to ask if whatever it was he had on Adam had something to do with Liza. David said nothing and urged his mother to be on her way. David strolled across the room and took a seat with the three woman.
Marian and Opal called it a night as soon as David joined them, but Liza had to remain behind because she was going to meet Adam. Mistakenly assuming that she and her fiancé had tied the knot when he'd barged in on them, David asked Liza why she and Adam were not on their honeymoon. Liza curtly replied that they'd decided to get married at the chapel at Wildwind. David's lips formed a slight smile, and he asked Liza if she was sure that she wanted to get married in the chapel. After all, he said, Gillian and Ryan had gotten married there -- "and look at what happened [to them]."
Adam arrived a short while later. Liza moved across the bar to watch a new sports anchor's debut on WRCW's nighttime news. Meanwhile, Adam warned David about crossing him. David smiled and reminded Adam that he was the one with the upper hand. Adam rejoined Liza and asked her if he could surprise her with something in the morning.
Gillian and Ryan kissed for several minutes before Ryan pulled away and said that it wasn't right to be doing what they were doing. Gillian bowed her head and muttered that the thought of her affair with David had to still disgust him. Ryan shook his head and explained that he no longer thought about the affair. Tht gave Gillian hope, but her hopes wouldn't reap any rewards. Ryan explained that he didn't want to make love to Gillian without knowing what their future held.
"If I can't give you the future, then nothing else matters," he said softly, "I can't hurt you again." Gillian was crushed. She raced out of the room in tears. Downstairs, she put her head in her hands and sobbed quietly on the sofa. A few seconds later, a comforting hand rested on her shoulders. Gillian looked up and saw Jake smiling tenderly at her.
Gillian told her friend what had transpired in her bedroom. Ryan watched quietly from the top of the stairs, listening to every word that Gillian said. "I love Ryan so much," she sniffled, "I want to hold him until all the pain goes away." Ryan lowered his head and walked away.
Gillian returned to her room and found Ryan writing her a note. She asked him to finish the note so that she could have something to hold on to. The note offered Gillian an apology for what had happened and wished her a peaceful night's sleep. Gillian thanked Ryan for the note and kissed him gently on the cheek. Ryan left the room, but gently felt the area that Gillian had kissed.
Downstairs for Ryan and Gillian's morning cup of coffee, Jake inadvertently found himself in the middle of a very awkward situation. Gillian sat on the sofa, sipping her coffee, while Ryan sat across the room at a desk, his back turned toward her. Gillian tired of the uneasiness and stormed out of the room. "You two are a piece of work," Jake grumbled to Ryan. The doctor didn't want to seem like he was imposing, but he asked Ryan if there was anything that he could do get Ryan and Gillian back together. He briefly mentioned that he had a friend who specialized in marriage counseling.
Ryan seemed to appreciate that Jake was interested in helping him, but he turned down his offer. When asked why he cared, Jake stated that he liked Gillian. The mood lightened momentarily as the two men thought about how Gillian could be "hilarious" at times -- even when she had no idea that she was being funny. Unfortunately, Ryan felt that his relationship with Gillian was irreparably damaged. "This mess can't be fixed," he sighed. Jake wished Ryan luck in sorting out his personal problems and left the house.
Meanwhile, Gillian had gotten dressed for work and returned downstairs. She apologized to Ryan for their near-intimate encounter the night before. Ryan assured her that it was not her fault -- or anyone's fault, for that matter. The occurrence had, however, made him realize that it was foolish to believe that he could live under the same roof as Gillian. Ryan said that he'd already left a note for Myrtle, explaining his decision to move out.
Gillian shook her head and announced that she'd move out. Since she was getting an allowance from Dimitri and would possibly have a paying job soon, Gillian felt that it would be easier for her to relocate. In a strange twist of emotions for the princess, she thanked Ryan for the great times she'd had as his wife, but said that it was time for her to be independent.
A groggy Tad straggled into the sparsely decorated parlor at Chandler Mansion. Opal was wide awake and ready to cook up a big breakfast for her son. Tad, though, didn't really feel like eating. The knot on his head ached with every movement. Opal wondered if Tad's headache had something to do with the top-secret mission he and Adrian had set out on the night before. Tad talked down his involvement in the plot. Opal sighed slightly and smiled proudly that her boys were starting to get along.
Adrian entered the room and warned Opal not to get her hopes up because he and Tad were definitely not getting along. Tad and Adrian bickered back and forth over their failed mission. Adrian complained that he never would have been involved in the project if it were not for Tad's demands that he accept the job. Opal listened in the background, blissfully unaware of anything the two men were discussing. Tad stormed out of the room, leaving Adrian and Opal to discuss the ongoing feud.
Opal had heard Tad drop Adam's name during the argument. She chuckled slightly and mused that Pine Valley was full of coincidences. After hearing Opal discuss how she'd spoken to Adam at the Valley Inn, Adrian realized that Adam had hired the goons that had attacked him and Tad in Leslie's office. Adrian understood why Opal wanted him and Tad to be friends, but that was her dream -- not his and not Tad's. Perhaps if the two men had met earlier in life, they could have become friends. Opal agreed that she would not force Adrian and Tad to be best friends, but, with a smile, she confessed that she would not give up hope. Adrian laughed and commented that he knew where Tad got his "stubborn streak."
Palmer and Petey entered the room, fresh from a father-son weekend visit. Opal dashed off to the kitchen to make sure that Petey's breakfast was ready. Adrian left the room before he and Palmer had words. Palmer, meanwhile, told his son how much he had enjoyed their visit. "Remember what we talked about," Palmer said as he grinned devilishly. Palmer went on to try to convince Petey that he should tell Opal that he wanted to spend time with his father every weekend and not just two days a month.
Petey knew that weekly visits violated the divorce agreement, but Palmer assured him that he could get whatever he wanted -- and all he had to do was ask. Eventually, Palmer went on his way. Adrian returned to the room and sat down with his younger brother to discuss their fathers. Petey held tightly to a new baseball mitt that Palmer had bought for him. One of the lessons Adrian said that he'd learned from his father was that a person could do whatever he wanted as long as it was the right thing to do. It was unclear if Adrian had overheard what Palmer had told Petey or if the sudden walk down memory lane was just a coincidence.
Opal returned to the room and told Petey that his breakfast was ready. Before the young boy scurried off to the kitchen, he told his mother that he liked having a "cool" older brother like Adrian. Adrian pulled Opal aside and told her that he'd thought more about her offer to give him her ownership in Cortlandt Electronics. Adrian was still opposed to the idea of getting a handout, but he did tell Opal that he would help her manage her stake in the company. Opal gave her son a big hug and thanked him for changing his mind.
Marian led Stuart in a secretive mission to Liza's office at WRCW. While skulking through the corridors, Marian rattled on and on about the plans she had for Liza and Adam's wedding. She rummaged around in one of Liza's drawers for a key. When she found it, she unlocked another drawer and removed the pouch she'd caught on her fishing expedition at Pine Valley Lake. Marian counted out some of the money and handed it to Stuart. The money, she explained, would be enough to pay for the caterer and florist.
Stuart shook his head and told Marian that the money was not theirs to spend. Marian argued that the "finders keepers" principle allowed them to take control of the money. Stuart felt otherwise, countering that they had enough money of their own to pay for the wedding. He asked Marian to consider the possibility that the large sum of money could be someone else's entire life savings. Marian never would have considered that if it were not for Stuart. Stuart phoned the newspaper and placed an item in the Lost and Found section with the hopes of finding the pouch's real owner.
Liza was in a hurry to get to WRCW for a budget meeting even though Adam had promised to give her a surprise in the morning. Adam pulled her aside and warned her that her always-on-the-go attitude might come back to haunt her after her baby was born. They were supposed to be the times to remember, said Adam, not the times to work until she dropped. Adam asked Liza to close her eyes and imagine a balcony overlooking water gently lapping against a shoreline and the smell of flowers lofting through the air. The imagery placed a smile on Liza's face.
While the idea was obviously appealing, Liza reminded Adam that she did not want to be out of shouting distance of Pine Valley Hospital. Adam promised his love that they could enjoy this mini-vacation and still be near the hospital. Liza's lips formed a defeated smile, and she agreed to Adam's plans. Adam lit up and announced that had to make some final arrangements before they could leave. Adam ran out of the condominium, but a few seconds later, a knock sounded on the door. Liza knew that Adam had to have forgotten something and made her way to the door. On the other side, however, was Tad -- not Adam.
At a table in the bar area of the Valley Inn, David forked over a large sum of cash to Leslie to pay her for her legal services. The attorney swallowed hard and told David that he might want to withhold payment because someone had broken into her office and stolen the papers he'd given to her. After learning that his files had been the only ones taken, David knew that it was no ordinary burglary. He paid Leslie anyway and dismissed her concerns that he might be in danger. "Is knowledge worth the risk of having it?" she asked the doctor. David beamed and said that not only was it worth the risk, it was more than worth it.
Barry and Adam sat down for a meeting, but David walked in on them and halted the discussion. "Well if it isn't my two favorite plumbers," David said as he sneered. He asked the two men if they were planning another break-in. David reminded Adam that he had more than one copy of the papers he had given to his attorney. "No man intimidates me," Adam snarled. David again flashed an arrogant grin and told Adam that it was only a matter of time before Liza learned the truth. After David left, Adam ordered Barry to get a restraining order against David for him. Barry wasn't sure what the grounds would be, but an angry Adam ordered him to find a reason.
Gillian reported for her duties at Pine Valley Hospital. While she was tidying the magazines on the sun porch, David approached with a smile on his face. The doctor was amused by Gillian's volunteering duties. "Don't make any trouble for me," Gillian growled. She ordered David to leave her alone, but David would do no such thing. Instead of her being angry and treating him "like a creep," David demanded respect from the young woman. David reminded Gillian that she still owed him the money he'd given her in the ice fishing shack, the money that was supposed to have helped Gillian and Ryan flee the country. Gillian flatly refused to pay David back, instead angrily telling him that she would never forgive him for tearing apart her relationship with Ryan.
Tad told Liza that he'd waited until Adam had left before knocking on her door. The reason, he claimed, was that he had something "very important" to tell her. "I don't want to hear it," Liza snapped. Tad noted that Liza's reaction was much like the way he'd reacted when Liza had tried to tell him about Dixie's health problems. Liza rolled her eyes and asked Tad if he had a videotaped message from Adam admitting that he'd done something wrong.
Tad said that he had something better than a videotape. He told Liza that Barry had hired Adrian on Adam's behalf to go into a local law office and steal some papers. Liza was unimpressed, noting that it could have been a case of "industrial spying." She froze when Tad mentioned that the file Adrian had been paid to nab had had David's name on it.
Jake picked that inopportune moment to drop by with a gift for Colby. He immediately sensed that something was going on. Tad gave his brother a very brief rundown of what was going on. Tad told Liza that she needed to face the fact that Adam had not changed. Appealing to Liza's love of her baby, Tad added that she owed it to her unborn daughter to learn the truth about Adam. The door to the condominium opened, and Adam returned carrying a bouquet of flowers.
Smiling euphorically, Hayley left the bedroom and slowly walked out into the living room. After opening the blinds, she sat down on the sofa and squeezed a pillow. Slowly, Hayley rose from the sofa and walked over to a full-length mirror. Hayley unfastened the belt to her pink satin robe and gently tucked the pillow into her robe so that she could see what she might look like when she was pregnant.
Mateo returned home and chuckled upon seeing his slightly lumpy lover standing in the middle of the room. The couple shared a passionate kiss and joked that if they continued their romantic ways, they'd have "five kids by the time dinner comes." Max scurried into the room and asked why Hayley had suddenly gotten fat. Hayley blushed slightly and claimed that she was playing "hide the pillow."
Mateo walked his son toward the door so that he could take the boy to school. As they did that, Raquel phoned and asked Mateo if he could drop by the hospital. Mateo had made other plans, but he agreed to drop them when Raquel announced that she had a "serious problem."
While updating a patient's chart, David overheard two nurses chatting giddily about Jake. One of the two women sighed as she mentioned that the young doctor had asked her advice on a stuffed animal he was going to buy for his unborn daughter. David rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the medical chart before him. Before he had completely tuned them out, he overheard one of the nurses stating that Jake had gone to the baby's mother's house. The cardiologist's eyes suddenly lit up.
Upon seeing Mateo by her bedside, Raquel apologized for taking Mateo away from his work. Mateo admitted that he should be working at the new club, but he also felt an obligation to be there for Raquel. Mateo worried that the doctors had given Raquel some bad news. In actuality, she'd gotten good news. Raquel softly announced that she was going to be released from the hospital later in the day.
Raquel grimaced slightly as she struggled to shift her position in bed. Then she revealed the bad news. Raquel had finally been able to talk to her cousin, Angela, and ask her if she'd be able to take care of her after her release. Unfortunately, Angela had taken on a new job and was not allowed to take any time off of work.
Mateo suggested that Isabella assume nursing duties, but that idea was quickly tossed aside. "You know she's never liked me," said Raquel, pointing to a potentially awkward situation for both of them. Finally, Mateo concluded that the only option left was for him to step in and take care of her. While Raquel told Mateo that she did not want to impose upon him, it was apparently that she desperately wanted him by her side during her recuperation.
Raquel and Mateo's ideas of exactly how he'd be taking care of her were drastically different. Mateo told Raquel that he would speak to Ruth Martin and get the name of a top-notch home care nurse. Raquel's face fell when she realized that by taking care of her, Mateo meant that he would be taking care of finding someone to take care of her.
Dressed in a red skirt, blouse, and blazer, Opal nervously fidgeted in the hallway outside of the room where the board members of Cortlandt Enterprises were meeting. By her side, Adrian made every attempt to calm his mother's jangled nerves and even gave her the opportunity to turn around and head back home. Opal shook her head and explained that she was not going to retreat. The pair entered the room while Palmer was making a statement. He abruptly stopped mid-sentence and told Opal that the boardroom was not the place for her to air their dirty laundry.
Opal refused to budge and announced that as holder of half of Palmer's shares in the company, she wanted a seat on the board. Trevor, who was at the meeting representing Erica, made a motion that Opal be given a seat on the board. Adrian looked crossly at one of the other board members, Mort, and "convinced" him to second the motion. When put to a vote, Palmer was the only opposition. Trevor rose and smiled broadly as he welcomed Opal to the board.
Palmer muttered that Opal was not sophisticated enough to understand what they were discussing. Opal countered by explained that Adrian, who held a degree from MIT, was there to help her out. Palmer was not amused and continued with a proposal to buy another company. Adrian spoke up and noted that the acquisition was a weak attempt to gain entrance to an area of the market where Cortlandt Electronics was poorly lacking. Instead of pouring money into a misguided acquisition, Adrian suggested that the company focus its attention on the dreaded Y2K problem.
Palmer groused that they'd already looked into the problem and determined that all of their hardware and software issued in the past decade was Y2K ready. When asked about the software and hardware issued prior to that time, Palmer didn't really seem to care about the older computers that might not be able to handle the Y2K problem. Adrian announced that those computers were more than likely owned by "mom and pop" stores and small town power companies. While they might not be spending millions and millions of dollars, Adrian suggested that supplying those owners with upgrades and new equipment would give the company a very powerful publicity boost. Plus, he said, it would surely translate into additional sales.
Once again, the board took a vote on the proposal -- and again, Palmer was the only one to vote against the idea. After the meeting, Trevor again congratulated Opal on her new seat. He joked that he was glad he was filling in for Erica because he had enjoyed the fireworks. Palmer waited until Opal was alone before approaching her. He berated her for overstepping her authority and asked her to step down from the board. Opal shook her head and told Palmer that she was not out to get him.
Adrian appeared by his mother's side and asked for a few moments alone with Palmer. Opal agreed and left the room. Palmer took jabs at Adrian, asking if he was going to kidnap Palmer again. Like their previous one-on-one encounters, Adrian was upset with Palmer. This time, he blasted Palmer for trying to play mind games with Petey. He had overheard the conversation in which Palmer tried to convince Petey to ask Opal for weekly weekend visits instead of the court-ordered every other weekend. "If you mess with that boy's head," Adrian snarled, "I promise you that you won't be able to find yours."
Adam surmised from the chill in the air that Jake and Tad had dropped by to give Liza more reasons why she should not marry him. Tad claimed that they had "a larger issue." Tad told Adam that hew knew that Adam had had Barry Shire hire Adrian to retrieve some documents from an attorney's office. "I admit it," Adam replied. Tad and Jake were stunned by the admission of guilt. Adam explained that he'd hoped the secret operation would unearth something that he could use to run David out of town.
Tad interjected that Adrian had originally been hired to torch the attorney's office, to which Adam noted that if he wanted the building to be torched, it would already be in ashes. Adam also had an explanation for the two goons that had clunked Tad and Adrian. He said that the two men had to have been bounty hunters who had wanted to get their hands on the file so that they could demand a lot of money for it. Liza had been listening carefully to everything that Adam had to say. It was her turn to speak out. She was upset with Adam for not telling her what he had been up to.
Liza stunned the men in the room when she announced that she would have wanted to help out in the mission to get rid of David. Adam laughed as Liza scolded Tad and Jake for thinking that Adam was up to no good. She reminded them that she'd said that Adam had changed -- not that he'd become a saint. Liza told Tad that she'd decided to fire David from his WRCW position. To make the moment even better, David arrived at the condo to throw a monkey wrench of his own into the conversation.
Liza asked for a few moments alone with the doctor, but David told her that anything she could say to him could also be said in front of her friends. So she blurted out the announcement that David had been fired. David took it quite well but insinuated that Adam was behind the decision to terminate him. Liza told him that the decision was her own, and she blamed David's constant appearance on her doorstep as one of the reasons she'd decided to fire him. The scene was set for David to fire off the news that Adam was really the father of Liza's child, but before he could drop his bomb, his pager sounded.
David knew that he'd have to run, but he told Liza that he would tell her why he had dropped by at a later time. Liza rolled her eyes and under her breath commented that she wouldn't be the least bit upset if David never told her why he'd dropped by. David left just as Liza received a call confirming her mini getaway with Adam. Jake and Tad both voiced their opposition to the vacation because of the closeness of Liza's due date. After the brothers left, Adam told Liza that she had been "magnificent" in the way she'd handled herself.
At the club tentatively titled SOS, Janet looked over the books to make sure that all of the financing was in order. Her head buried in the books, Janet tried to start up a conversation with Hayley -- but her niece was off in another world. Janet smirked slightly and asked Hayley to reveal why she was so distant. Hayley couldn't hold back the good news any longer. In one fell swoop, she told Janet about Mateo and Raquel's off-but-now-on-again divorce and her clean bill of health.
Janet hugged Hayley and congratulated her on the good news. She warned Hayley that it might take a while before she actually conceived a child, but she joked that it didn't hurt to have a little fun along the way. Mateo appeared and immediately gave Hayley a kiss to thank her for all her hard work on the club. Janet cleared her throat so that the couple would remember that she was still there. With a wry smile, Janet announced that she'd been working hard, too, and wanted to know if she was entitled to a kiss.
Trevor arrived at the hospital to ask Raquel to sign some divorce papers. Raquel was stunned and claimed that she was too groggy from pain medicine to be able to sign the papers. She asked the attorney to leave the papers on her bedside table so that she could review and sign them later. Trevor agreed. Before leaving, he told her that she'd acted bravely when she had saved Mateo from the tumbling scaffolding -- and was equally brave for agreeing to end her marriage.
Back at the hospital, David was making his rounds when Tad suddenly appeared in front of him. David turned to walk in the other direction, but Jake was blocking his path. Tad wasted no time in telling David that he knew all about the file that had been stolen from the attorney's office -- well, almost all about it. The two men demanded that David tell them what he was hiding. David shrugged indifferently and stated that the only thing he remembered filing was an updated copy of his will.
In passing, Tad informed David that he wanted to know what he had on Adam before Liza and Adam made their walk down the aisle. David stuck to his story about the will and seemed unfazed by the news that Adam had taken Liza out of town. Tad and Jake didn't buy it, but David walked away before they could pressure him for more details. Jake and Tad both agreed that David had something on Adam -- something big.
In a country inn, Adam sat in bed next to Liza as she munched on crackers and cheese. "We're runaway lovers," Adam said as he grinned. "Nobody can find us. Nobody," he said. But back at the hospital, David placed a call to WRCW under the guise of needing Liza to sign some medical papers and learned that the couple had headed off to the Sleepy Hollow Inn. "You can run, but you can't hide," David sneered, "not from me."
Since leaving his job meant that he'd no longer be forced to lug around heavy caseloads, Jack turned to a more conventional method of keeping in shape -- pumping iron. Kit arrived at his door mid-workout, but Jack wasn't the least bit upset that he'd have to cut his exercise session a little short. Before Jack knew who was at his door, he called out Brooke's name. Kit was pleased that Jack had found someone special. Jack insisted that he and Brooke were "just friends" and teased his sister about the hassling he'd give her the first time she took a date home.
The brother-sister team was supposed to go house hunting, but Kit asked for an indefinite rain check. Kit showed Jack a letter from Travis, a letter that contained a plane ticket to Seattle. Jack wasn't opposed to the idea of having Kit travel to Washington to visit her other brother, but he was definitely going to miss her. Kit felt bad about leaving at a time when Jack was jobless and alone.
Shortly after David concluded a call on his cell phone, Erica appeared before him. Erica's sizeable wad of bandages had been replaced by a svelte black facemask, which Erica referred to as "kind of a Zorro thing." Underneath the mask that covered half of her face, Erica still had a thin layer of bandages soaked in a special healing solution. During her visit with Dr. Eduardo, Erica had been shown graphic before and after pictures of other patients he had treated.
Unlike Dr. Weiss's conventional approach to plastic surgery, the South American-based physician was a revolutionary in the field. The doctor was unable to promise Erica one hundred percent results, but he felt confident that Erica was "a very good candidate for complete recovery." Erica thanked David for referring her to the doctor. David downplayed his involvement, saying that he was certain that someone else would have recommended Dr. Eduardo. "Thank you," Erica said sincerely.
Erica reached into her purse and retrieved an information packet given to her by her new plastic surgeon. David reviewed the papers, which gave specific instructions on how to clean and dress the wound on her face. To David's surprise, Erica refused to let Dr. Weiss care for her. Even more shocking, Erica announced that she wanted David to take her on as a patient. "As you know, I don't think very much of you as a human being," Erica said matter-of-factly. But Erica knew that David was a "genius" when it came to medicine.
David was flattered and agreed to help her, but he did admit that it might be a little awkward for both of them. Since he was back on the case, David felt the need to dispense some free medical advise. David warned Erica to free herself of his mother before it was too late. Erica didn't want to get into an argument over Vanessa and told David that they needed to "agree to disagree" about his mother.
Brooke returned home and found Phoebe waiting for her. In the older woman's hands were several fliers that she wanted placed around the neighborhood. Some "hooligan," said Phoebe, had torn through the neighborhood on a motorcycle in the middle of the night. Brooke broke into laughter and confessed that she was the hooligan. Phoebe listened as Brooke explained that she and Jack had been riding around town.
Phoebe badmouthed Jack for trying to ruin Brooke's reputation by having her ride on the back of a motorcycle. Again, a broad smile returned to Brooke's face as she clarified that she had been the one driving. Brooke told her aunt that she wanted to help Jack through a difficult time in his life. Of course, Phoebe immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion. She insinuated that Brooke had designs on Jack, reminding her that a few years before, she had thought that Jack was "the perfect man."
Phoebe asked Brooke about her budding romance with Dimitri, but Brooke declined to go into detail, simply stating that "it didn't work." As if on cue, Jack and Kit arrived at the house so that Kit could bid farewell to Brooke. Before Kit could make her news known, Phoebe scolded Jack for being a bad influence on Brooke. Jack joked that Brooke was the only one who was putting her life on the line.
Phoebe's eyes widened as she painfully asked what her niece had been up to. Jack and Brooke mentioned their one-night stand at the local comedy club. Phoebe wanted to invite Opal and Myrtle to join her at the club so that they could all watch Jack perform. Jack, however, claimed that he had no plans to go back on the stage.
Kit finally told Brooke that she was going to be leaving town for a while to spend time with Travis and Barbara. Phoebe said that she understood why Kit was leaving because she had "lived in this town since the earth cooled." Kit, she figured, wanted to make a new start somewhere else. Kit assured the two women -- and her big brother -- that she was just going to Seattle for a few weeks and that she'd be back.
Later, Kit had to drop by the Valley Inn because she'd forgotten her plane ticket. While Jack was on the phone, Kit asked Brooke to keep an eye on her brother while she was gone.
Sitting at the desk in Erica's office, Vanessa carried on like she'd been at Enchantment for years. She fielded a call from Jerry Reeves, the reporter that had interviewed Erica at the high school. The two worked hand in hand as they tried to unearth the latest gossip about Erica's condition. Janet entered the office in the middle of the conversation, and Vanessa was forced to hang up. Janet was surprised to see Vanessa working at Erica's desk. She was more concerned, though, with several peculiar expenditures that had shown up in the books.
Vanessa claimed that she'd been authorized to run Enchantment while Erica was out of town. The phone rang, and Vanessa had to leave the room to tend to a problem in the reception area. Opal entered the office a few moments later to invite Janet out for a bite to eat. Janet ordered Opal to close the door and filled her new friend in on what Vanessa had been up to. Opal countered by telling Janet that she believed that Vanessa had alerted the media to Erica's interview at the high school.
When Vanessa finally returned, she said that she was glad to see Opal because she could use an extra pair of hands around the office. Opal shook her head defiantly and announced that she was not there to help Vanessa. "Not so fast, Queenie," she snapped. Opal blasted Vanessa for pretending to be Erica's friend. Vanessa chuckled nervously and claimed that Opal was misinterpreting things. Janet vowed to go over every item in the expense log to see if there was anything that Vanessa should not have purchased.
Opal and Janet filed out of the office, but Janet returned some time later. While Janet was there, a man arrived and announced that there were several models waiting for her downstairs. Janet questioned Vanessa's authority to interview models. Vanessa explained that she was interviewing candidates for the "Return to Glamour" campaign. Janet reminded Vanessa that Erica wanted to be the star of the publicity campaign.
"Let's face it," Vanessa said coldly, "her modeling days are over." Janet's eyes grew wide, and she stormed out of the office, intent on tracking down Erica. Vanessa narrowed the field down to two models. As she told the two women that she'd decided to hire both of them for the campaign, Erica entered the office.
Back at Brooke's house, Opal met with Phoebe and alerted her to the town's latest menace -- Vanessa Bennett. Phoebe listened carefully and agreed that Vanessa sounded like a troublemaker. She decided that she'd phone Dimitri and enlist his help in getting to the bottom of the situation.
Liza was hit by another craving -- lemonade. Adam phoned room service and asked them to send up a pitcher of freshly squeezed lemonade. When it arrived, Liza's lips puckered, and she claimed that she could use the lemonade to "clean [her] bathtub." She reached for the accompanying bowl of sugar and dumped in all of the sugar. Liza was pleased with her concoction, but it was just a little too sweet for Adam.
The pair set aside their drinking glasses and focused on something a little more productive: their wedding vows. Adam wanted to recite the traditional vows, but Liza thought it would be better if they wrote their own vows. In her vow, Liza told Adam that "it doesn't get any better than this: to love and be loved." Suddenly, a knock sounded on the door. Liza licked her lips as she anticipated a dessert delivery from the private chef Adam had hired. She opened the door, and her face fell.
"You're not apple pie," Liza groaned upon seeing David. "I'm not even true, blue American," David smirked. Adam raced to the door and demanded to know what David was doing there. David grinned and explained that he wanted to give Liza her wedding present a little early.
The thunderstorm caught many Pine Valley residents by surprise, including Tad. The deluge caught Tad unprepared, and his umbrella took quite a beating by the heavy winds. Once inside his house, Tad flippantly threw the inside-out umbrella on the floor and stomped on it several times, perhaps to put it out of its misery. Dixie stood in the background, desperately trying to muffle her laughter.
With the boys staying at Cortlandt Manor with Opal, Tad and Dixie were given a little time to themselves. One of the first things on the agenda, according to Dixie, was for her to "make an honest man" out of Tad. Both Tad and Dixie admitted that they'd spent a lot of time in recent days, thinking about their pending marriage. Dixie handed Tad a calendar and asked him to select a day for their walk down the aisle.
Dixie, however, wasn't as nonchalant about setting the date as she appeared; several large red arrows pointed to May 20, the day she'd pre-selected as their wedding day-to-be. The date was only a few weeks away, and the pair joked about eloping, but both knew that Opal and Ruth would be disappointed if they didn't get to attend the ceremony. Tad placed a few phone calls but was unable to find a venue that would be available for May 20.
On the way back from the airport, Brooke demanded that Jack pull to the side of the road and let her out. The inclement weather warranted careful driving, but Jack was speeding along the poorly lit roads. Jack finally pulled over by the boathouse, where he and Brooke got into a very heated argument. Brooke stormed out of the car and headed to the boathouse for shelter. There, she blasted Jack for taking out his anger on her. His anger, she explained, was the result of Jack having "lost [his] sister for a second time."
Jack bowed his head and sighed deeply. "You always lose the ones you fail," Jack said softly. Brooke tried to shake Jack of the notion that he'd failed his sister, but the attorney's stubbornness wouldn't allow him to listen to what she had to say. Brooke assured Jack that Kit would return to Pine Valley, but Jack thought otherwise. He knew that it would be easy for Kit to start anew under Travis' wing.
Brooke looked down at the wooden plank floor and announced that there were having "too serious a conversation." To combat the onset of seriousness, Brooke suggested that they "run out in the rain to see if [they could] catch pneumonia." Jack agreed, and after their rain romp, Jack taught Brooke how to tango.
Jake dropped by his parents' house and found his father sprawled out on his back on the kitchen floor. Joe didn't budge when Jake entered the room, but he did acknowledge his son's presence. Ruth had somehow lost one of her earrings, and she was certain that she'd lost it in the sink. So, rather than argue with his wife, Joe was trying to take apart the drain valve.
Jake's visit wasn't without reason. He told Joe that he was starting to get pre-baby jitters. Jake worried that Colby wouldn't want to be around him because he was uninteresting or that he just wouldn't be a good dad. Joe asked Jake if he was ever bored when he dropped by to visit Joe and Ruth. "Out of my gourd," said Jake with a smile. Joe dutifully noted that Jake kept dropping by to visit them -- even though he occasionally got bored.
When asked why he'd put him through the apparent torture, Jake stated that he liked visiting his parents because they always made him feel special. That, Joe said with a sage smile, was one of the most important things about being a parent. From the other room, Tad squealed a greeting in an inordinately falsetto voice. He and Dixie filed into the kitchen and told the pair that they needed help planning a wedding -- on the 20th of May. Joe's eyes bulged when he realized that they had only three or so weeks to prepare, but he happily agreed.
Vanessa continued to carry on business, unaware that Erica was standing behind her. Luckily for her, one of the two models motioned toward Erica, and Vanessa was saved the embarrassment of saying something that could have landed her in hot water. The models were dismissed with the possibility of becoming the news faces of Enchantment Cosmetics. Erica stormed toward her desk and scolded Vanessa for disobeying her orders to not attempt to conduct Erica's business while Erica was gone. Vanessa claimed that she'd felt she had to do something because everything had been going up in flames around her. Erica rolled her eyes and stated that she'd been in constant contact with her employees while in South America.
Vanessa immediately moved to cover her misdoings, claiming that she had no idea who had arranged the meeting with the two female models. In an effort to shift the blame, Vanessa stated that she believed that Erica had asked the two women to drop by the office. A knock sounded on the door, and Dimitri entered. He said that he was surprised to see Erica, which immediately prompted Erica to ask why he'd dropped by if he hadn't expected her to be there.
Dimitri told Erica that he wanted to help her determine who her friends really were. Erica nodded her head slightly and admitted that lately it had been difficult to tell who her real friends were. Erica, however, said that she was growing tired of everyone thinking that they knew what was best for her. Janet entered the office and smiled when she saw that Erica had returned. Janet was about to alert Erica to Vanessa's unauthorized spending when Vanessa interrupted and tried yet again to cover her tracks. She told Erica that Janet had uncovered some anomalies in the expenditure log -- but she quickly let it be known that she'd had nothing to do with any of them.
Janet was obviously angered by Vanessa's assertion that she didn't know how to do her job. In an effort to boost her case against Vanessa, Janet mentioned that she'd learned that Vanessa was the one who had alerted the media to Erica's interview in the library. Vanessa denied the allegations, and Erica promptly ordered Janet to leave the room. "You're a bookkeeper," she said haughtily, "so keep books." Janet was crushed by Erica's icy words. Dimitri scolded Erica for being mean, but it didn't seem to faze her.
Dimitri left the office to check on Janet. Meanwhile, Vanessa claimed that she felt bad for causing friction between Erica and her friends. Vanessa tired to shuffle herself out of the office, but she was stopped before she could leave. Erica asked her point-blank if she'd had anything to do with the film crews showing up during Erica's interview with Jerry Reeves. "Yes, Erica," said Vanessa, "that was my fault." Vanessa went on to recite her version of what had happened. She told Erica that she'd passed Liza's message on to a nurse at the hospital and surmised that that nurse had blabbed the news of the interview to the media.
"I don't want your wedding present," Liza replied in a voice that was a mix of anger and whining. David smirked as he told the mother-to-be how long it had taken him to find her. Adam pushed David into the hallway and closed the door behind them. He demanded to know what he had to do to earn David's silence. The mogul tossed ten million dollars into the ring as payment for David' silence. Money, though, wasn't going to inspire David to back down.
"I can't turn back now," responded David, "my game and your chances for happiness are finito." The only thing that David said could silence him was his death -- and even then, his silence would be short-lived. Adam suddenly became soft, asking David to allow him to break the news to Liza. David was shocked. In his visions of how things would play out, he had never expected Adam to be the one to tell Liza the truth. David agreed, and the two men filed back into the room.
Liza groaned when she saw that David was still hanging around. Adam began his confession by telling Liza that David had been looking for a way to get back at her ever since she had run him out of town. David ordered Adam to "fast-forward" to the confession. "He's found information that he thinks will tear us apart," Adam said softly. Liza's rage started to grow. She stepped toward David and heatedly told him that nothing he could say would shock her.
Beads of sweat formed on Liza's brow as she lashed out at the doctor. Liza's eyes fluttered, and she took in a quick, deep breath of air. She sat down on the edge of the bed with a bout of what she thought was nausea. After several seconds of discomfort, she quickly realized that "this isn't nausea... the baby's coming." Adam crouched beside her as David offered to transport Liza to the hospital. Liza, however, snapped that Adam would be taking her to the hospital and ordered him to stay away from her.
On the way to the hospital, the rain continued to fall. Adam tried to calm Liza, but it was difficult for him to be there mentally for her when he had to concentrate on driving. As they drove down the road, they suddenly realized that the bridge -- apparently the only way back to town -- was flooded out. Liza's pain started to intensify. Adam put the car into reverse with the hopes of finding another way back to town, but the car's tire spun deeper and deeper into the mud. They and the car were stuck.
