On the whole I'd rather be in Philadelphia

One look at Chloe's face was all Phillip needed to know what happened. A two hour detailed explanation by William F. Buckley couldn't have told him anything more. Nancy stormed out a minute later, but thankfully she was so enraged she never noticed him. Phillip ran towards the car though what he was going to do when he got there was anybody's guess. He got to the car just as it pulled away. He kept running for about a block but it was useless.

Chloe sat still, looking out the car window, until she saw Phillip that is. Then she looked out the front windshield.

"Chloe you'll feel better about this in the morning. Better find out now than later, before... " Nancy waited for a response and getting none said, "You're not going to say one word the entire way home?"

Chloe shot Nancy a cold, sidelong glance and turned back to the window.

"I know you can't see this right now but this is for the best. I just don't want to see you make the same mistakes I did."

This time Nancy heard a slight cough. "There I was a teenage girl, pregnant by a man who didn't care about me."

Chloe laughed. As if Phillip had ever thought about...

"You know you are a very beautiful young woman Chloe and for...well you don't have to be all that pretty for...Chloe..."

"Can we just go home? I'm tired." Chloe finally said and they drove the rest of the way in silence.

Chloe rushed up the stairs to her room without even saying hello to Craig who stood by the door.

"Nancy, I thought you wouldn't be home till..." Craig looked closely at Nancy and then heard Chloe's soldier like stomp up the stairs. "Okay. What happened?"

"Our man Phillip happened. He didn't disappoint. He devastated."

Oh no, Craig thought.

"The date to the dance? The whole thing was a bet. A bet. Loser gets a date with Chloe." Nancy said.

"That son of a ..."

"Kate. You got it." It was only human to feel a little triumph at being right but Nancy seemed...it was almost like she was enjoying this.

"Is she all right?" Craig asked.

"She'll be fine. I..."

"Hold on." Craig heard a rustling noise and went out the front door to check. There was Phillip standing on the front lawn, apparently without any intention of coming in. He was just staring up at Chloe's window. Craig tapped him on the shoulder. "How dare you set foot on my property? You have some nerve. Answer me you little...you don't even have the guts to look me in the eye." Craig grabbed Phillip by the shoulder and spun him around. Phillip stepped back and held on to the railing of the front porch as though he needed the support just to stay on his feet. "Go on home" Craig shouted.

Phillip glanced back at the window for a moment and turned back to Craig. He was like one of those hurricane victims on TV staring at the ruins of his house, everything he owned washed away in a single blow. "Just go home." Craig said softly. "I don't think she'll talk to you tonight."

Phillip nodded and went on his way.

"What was it?" Nancy asked.

"Nothing." Craig said. "Wait so how did this all happen?"

"Jason, that hoodlum friend of Phillip's..."

"You know his father works...wait ...he told her?"

"Well actually he told me and I....

"You told Chloe? Right there?"

You think I shouldn't have told her?" Nancy said in absolute disbelief. She gave Craig the sense that if he didn't respond as she'd like he wouldn't have long on this earth but then Craig had been married to Nancy for quite a few years now. He calmly said "Maybe not."

Nancy let out a ferocious sigh of exasperation. "How can you say that? She needed to know."

"Maybe."

"Maybe? I know...I know that..."

"You are so sure that...see there are lots of maybes in this situation. We don't know how things would have turned out with Phillip and now we might never know. You could at least have waited. You could have let Phillip tell her himself...I don't know. I thought he genuinely cared for her and..."

At that the fiery Nancy was ready to flare up and spew molten lava onto the love of her life. "Craig that is absolute nonsense. A lot of boys genuinely cared for Chloe when they saw how she looked at the dance, and what's does it matter anyway? He's a game player, not to be trusted. I knew it all along but no you said..."

"Nancy..."

"Don't you dare defend that boy."

"I'm not defending him. What he did was outrageous. It was unforgivable."

"Thank you for that." Nancy said. " What is it?" she asked as a funny smile appeared on Craig's face.

"Just remembering some of the things your said about me." he said. "Look Nancy, what Phillip did is terrible. That's my point. Chloe is a very smart girl. You don't think she had her suspicions?"

"What does that mean?"

"Just I think you need to give her a little credit sometimes."

Nancy turned away and began drumming her fingers on the banister. Craig wouldn't have been surprised had she covered her ears and starting humming loudly.

"Nancy, what has been Chloe's biggest problem, since she got here?"

"Craig I am not going to let Chloe down and I will do the right thing even if it hurts a little. It has taken too long for us to get where we are and I will not let Phillip"

"Dammit Nancy, this has nothing to do with Phillip." He shouted. "Do you know how hard it is for Chloe to open up to people? She is so afraid of being hurt but she risked it for Phillip, probably for the first time in her life and the second she does you tell her she can't trust herself. How soon do you think it'll be before she risks it again?"

"Phillip would have shown his true colors sooner or later..."

"Okay say that's true and I'm not saying it is, Chloe's hurt either way, nothing gained except now you're the one who made it happen and Chloe knows it."

Nancy walked over to the phone and started to dial.

"What are you doing?" Craig said.

"I think Victor Kiriakis and I need to have a little talk."

"Now?" Craig said as he hung up the phone.

"Right now."

"Nancy it's late. You're tired. I'm tired. All of this can wait till morning. Let Phillip Kiriakis have a night's sleep before the firing squad comes round."

"Don't tell me you actually feel sorry for that boy, after what he did..."

"I don't feel sorry for ...give the kid a break Nancy because that's what he is. He's a sixteen year old kid who did something stupid. He didn't think..."

"No he didn't."

"Philip deserves everything he gets but in the morning Nancy. In the morning."

Nancy grabbed the phone back and heard a voice answer on the other end. "Now listen here missy" Craig heard her say. " I don't care how late it is. You get your boss on this phone or you'll have me to answer to. This concerns his son..." Craig sat down in the kitchen and poured himself a stale cup of coffee. It didn't even keep him up anymore.

When Chloe got to her room she slammed the door so hard it popped right back open but she didn't even notice. She went straight to the big pile of CD's and sheet music stacked on her dresser drawer and tried to grab her Madam Butterfly CD from the middle. She pulled too hard and the CD's and papers starting sliding down but she caught them in her hands. She pushed them back roughly while she tried to keep the rest of the pile from falling over. Each time she put one thing back another started falling. "Not now." She began to cry. "I'm too tired for this." One of the CD's in her hand fell to the floor and as she stooped to pick it up she knocked into the whole pile. "I can't do this anymore." She cried exhausted and let the stack go tumbling to the ground.

Albums, tapes, vocal scores, opera programs...Her La Boheme hit her hard on top of the foot as it came crashing down. She picked it up and threw it across the room, breaking the jewel case. She almost slipped as she stepped on the score of La Traviata. She peeled away the paper that had stuck to her leg and knelt down to pick up the mess. Her back hurt and her feet ached and finally she just sat down cross legged in the middle of the floor. Rigoletto. Perfect, she thought as she picked up the score. Rigoletto the court jester, the kings fool and his foolish daughter who thought the Duke actually...Where was her Rigoletto CD? She anxiously searched for it among the clutter as though finding it were the most important thing in the world but finally gave up, exhausted and leaned back against the foot of her bed. She sat with her knees up and her arms folded around them. Though she could feel the bed frame against her back she just ignored it. "I'm too tired for this." She said. "Too tired."

Phillip walked in the door and saw his father waiting for him and from the look on Victor's face he'd either found out the world was going to end or he'd spoken to Mrs. Wesley. Either way Phillip Kiriakis was a dead man.

"Phillip!' Victor called out to his son. Had he followed the pronouncement with a stern "I'd like to talk to you about something." had he shook his head, tapped his hand against the table in a most menacing way, yelled, growled, anything - it would have been better than this. Philip searched his father's face for some sign, anything.

"Phillip." Victor said again.

"Not now, okay? I know that I have it coming, just not now, please." He could still picture Chloe in his mind's eye. Phillip turned to the side and tried to hide his face. All he wanted to do was get out of that room. "Please, I don't think I can handle this right now."

"You don't Phillip? When will you be able to handle this? "

"I don't know."

"You don't know. Well I do. You'll handle it right now. You will take responsibility for your action like a man."

"Okay."

"Okay? It is not okay Phillip. It is far from okay and it won't be okay for a very long time. Do you understand me?"

Philip stood for a moment saying nothing. He had little strength left at this point, a warn out rag doll ready to slide onto the floor in a big messy heap and even his father's fury wasn't going to move him. That said quite alot. The controlled fury of Victor Kiriakis could move Mt. Rushmore.

"Do you understand me Phillip? Because if you don't...

"Yes I understand you." Phillip answered quickly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Well I am not. Do you have any concept of what you've done?"

"Yes."

"Really? I'd be very interested in hearing what you think. You know there are consequences for what you do. Believe me not sitting behind the wheel of a car until you're d riving to visit your grandchildren is the least of them. And yes we'll probably be turning that speed boat of yours into a maritime museum because I can guarantee you it's not leaving the dock but I'd like to know what you think; what do you think your punishment should be?"

"I don't know."

"That is not a satisfactory answer. I'm waiting Phillip."

Phillip's feet moved from side to side, shifting his weight every moment. He stared at his shoes and then looked up, looked around the room, an escape hatch, a secret panel....He just wanted to run away but that would be suicidal. "I know I deserve whatever I get. I'm sure anything you decide will be fair."

"Fair? Do you deserve to be treated fairly? Was this bet fair to Chloe?"

"No."

" You're right about that. Well...so what do you have to say for yourself? I'm losing patience..."

"I wanted to apologize but I don't think she wants to talk to me...I"

"Then you'll find another way. You'll write, give the message through a family..."

"No, I can't do that..."

"You will do whatever it takes to show you sincere regret at these circumstances but that is a given. No, I wasn't speaking of apologies..."

"I tried to tell Chloe the truth, the night of the dance..."

"And that's supposed to make this better? You've shamed not only yourself but your family as well. I asked you a question Phillip."

Phillips eyes begged for just the tiniest bit of time but Victor was not an indulgent man, or even an indulgent father. He stood solid as a rock, face included and waited.

"I made a mistake." Phillip continued.

"That you did."

"Look, I didn't want to hurt Chloe...I" He took a second to compose himself. "She was talking about the kids at school, the night of the dance. She said...she said there were nice kids there, Belle, Shawn and me...me. I mean people say you know, Phil's all right, he ‘s kind of a jerk sometimes but underneath it all, he's okay. He'll come through in the end, not at the beginning though. He'll help you out if there's something in it for him. There's good in him...deep down inside. Well Chloe wasn't talking about deep down inside and it felt nice, really nice. I was one of the good guys, for a change." Philip smiled as for a moment as he thought about the dance. " When we were in the limo Chloe thanked me for asking her.... she said I sounded sincere.... I couldn't..."

"That's your excuse?"

"No. It's the answer to your question. She won't say it again." Phillip then turned and walked up the stairs to his room. Victor did not stop him..

Up Nancy went the second she hung up the phone, straight to Chloe's bedroom. "Chloe honey..." she whispered about to knock on the door but she stopped suddenly, her fist still in the air. She looked through the open door not hearing Craig come up behind her.

Chloe's wet, fogged up glasses lay a few feet away from her on the rug. Craig had never seen Chloe's eyes look ugly but so they were. Blotchy, red, purply things you could barely see from underneath the folds of the puffy, droopy skin around them. Her mouth was open, almost in the shape of a square and her lips and hands trembled occasionally.

Nancy turned around and saw Craig. "She'll be all right."

Nancy said nervously. "Yeah." Craig said. "She'll be all right. She's a tough cookie that one.

Nancy smiled weakly but looked back at Chloe's room.

"Come on, let's go to bed." Craig said as he put his arm around Nancy and led her down the hall.

About an hour later, after Craig was fast asleep, Nancy went back to Chloe's bedroom and snuck a peek through the door. She was still sitting up against the bed frame. She looked like she hadn't moved. Chloe was quietly crying, no, not crying exactly - more like gurgling or choking, as if she was struggling to breathe. Once in a while a bit of voice came along with it. She'll be fine Nancy told herself and she kept telling herself at every step she took back down the hallway.

Craig was the first one to get up in the morning. He suffered through the evils of drinking coffee he brewed himself and wondered if the caffeine was worth it. As it was he didn't need a stimulant to shock his system. Chloe calmly walked into the kitchen and asked if they had any orange juice.

"No, I think all we have is grapefruit." Craig said.

"Fine."

"You want me to make you some tea?"

"No, I'm late enough as it is."

"You're not going to the construction site..."

"Why not?"

"But you must be tired..."

" It's not the Lockhart's fault Phillip is a.."

"Chloe...why don't you sit down. I'll make some microwave pancakes..."

Chloe opened her eyes wide.

"Sorry about trying to feed you reconstituted poison. That's all I know how to cook."

"I'm leaving. See you later."

"Wait...I think Nancy wanted to..." But Chloe was already ten feet out the door when Nancy came downstairs.

"Want some grapefruit juice?" He said to Nancy.

Phillip had arrived early at the Habitat lot and was already well into his assignment for the day when Shawn arrived.

"Hey bud."

"Hey." Phil said without looking up. "Could you get me a hex driver?"

"A hex driver? You need a screwdriver."

"This is all wrong." He said holding up the bracket he was working on. "And they stripped the screw too so I can't even..." He struggled to unscrew the bracket with no luck. "Probably used the wrong kind of screw driver. "

Shawn handed the hex driver to Phillip.

"Not this one. God, you're worse than Belle." He practically shouted. Shawn gave the other hex driver to Phillip who finally managed to get the bracket undone.

"Belle Black. They shouldn't let her within a mile of this place." Phillip said coldly. "I know she means well but she hurts more than she helps and I'm sick of..."

"Whoa, take it easy." Shawn said. "And for your information it was Clyde and Bryan who worked here yesterday. "What is with you?"

"What's with me? What's with you? You're acting like nothing is..." Phillip stopped what he was doing. "You don't know. I take it your folks didn't get a friendly phone call from Nancy Wesley."

"Nancy Wesley?" Shawn said as he slowly realized what had happened. "Chloe...Jason."

"Oh yeah. Jason. Man, I know you're not the ‘I told you so.' type but if you want to go right ahead. Jason wants Chloe to tutor him. Strange I think but what harm can it do? You tell me don't involve Chloe...you never know what Jason has up his sleeve? But do I listen? No. He's walking around like he's king of the world, like he's got something on me. Hey what can he do, right? What's he going to do, sitting in his living room with his mom, his little sister and the family beagle in the house? Right? He set me up."

"I don't think he set you up. It doesn't even make sense. Why some fancy setup to get Chloe to his house when all he had to do was walk up to her and tell her?"

"He knew he wouldn't be able to talk to her without any of us stopping him."

"This is crazy. Why would he even want to tell her? I mean you've got something on him you know."

"Not anymore. He told Nancy about that too."

"That doesn't make sense either. If Nancy only found out about that yesterday he wouldn't have had any reason to..."

"Look I don't know why he did it. You think the guy uses sense?"

Phillip, you gotta keep your cool. You're getting irrational."

"Keep your cool? You keep your cool."

"Look just..." Shawn suddenly stopped.

"What's the matter?" Phillip asked but didn't bother to wait for the answer. Chloe put her stuff down on the floor. She glanced at Phillip and Shawn briefly before going over to her work area.

"Let's go" Shawn said as he walked toward Chloe.

"Oh no."

"Phil."

"Not now. I mean we're out in the open with like a thousand volunteers..."

"Hey I'm going. You do what you want." Shawn said.

Chloe saw Shawn coming and called out a friendly if not happy hello.

"Hi." Shawn said.

Chloe, seeing Shawn's confusion said "Ah I see Phillip told you about his little bet. Good news travels fast?"

"Uh no." Shawn said bewildered. "Actually I've known about it for a while."

"Really? I guess Phil just can't keep from bragging about his expected triumphs. Of course he did lose."

"Your mom didn't tell you?" Nancy must have assumed that Phillip bet against Jason.

A little flutter moved across Chloe's face. "Tell me what?"

"Oh man." Shawn said. "I...about the bet..." he began. "Phillip made the bet with me....Chloe, I am so sorry." He said. "I don't even know why I agreed to it...I mean Phillip kept saying he..." Shawn began and then stopped mid sentence. The things Phillip had said would probably not give Chloe comfort. "I'm sorry." he said again.

"It's all right, Shawn. It's over with and you can't change it. I better get back to work." She said and walked away.

"So what happened?" Phillip said when Shawn returned. "How's Chloe?"

"Okay, I think. You really should try to talk to her."

"A little later, maybe."

"You know Jason didn't give me away?"

"Why would he..."

"Who knows? " Shawn said. "It helped though. Being able to tell Chloe myself.

Yes, Phillip thought, it might have helped him if he'd been able to tell Chloe himself but then it was different for him and for Shawn. Very different.

"Yeah. Who knows?"

Phillip and Shawn continued with their work but their minds were definitely elsewhere. Phillip did approach Chloe later on in the day but didn't say anything. The look on her face as he got near would have downed an army, a large army and Phillip did not want things to get any worse than they were.