Nikki sat on the couch and looked up at Jack worriedly, “Don’t judge me too harshly, Jack,  please..”

Jack sat next to her and said “I’m not, I'm truly not.. it was probably Victor’s fault anyway”

Nikki rolled her eyes “Jack, I was there, okay? Don’t blame it on Victor... and beside," She said,  "I was more than willing participant”.

Jack smiled to her “Nik, I’ll listen, I just don’t want to know any details”

Nikki couldn’t help but smile at him, she leaned back on the couch “We were both so caught up with the moment, we never stopped to even think of anything”

She buried her face in her hands “God I can’t believe iI let myself fo that”.

Jack looked at her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder and asked “Do you regret it?”

Nikki said “I suppose I should, shouldn’t I? But, how one regrets something that felt so... true an good at the moment, and yet so, awkward later?”

Jack said “If, I were you, I would regret it” and made a disgusted face.

Nikki slapped his shoulder in despair “Jack!! Would you be serious please!”.

Jack smiled “Okay, okay I’m sorry, I know it’s a difficult time for you now”

Nikki rubbed her forehead “”It is, and this isn’t going to help, especially since Victor..”

Jack looked at her “Since Victor what?”

Nikki lowered her head and said “He stayed the night, what night? it was already after 4, and he pretty much knew we would have to talk in the morning but when I woke up, he was gone, he left a note that
he went to see Amy’s psychiatrist and .. well, haven’t heard from him since”.

Jack caressed her cheek, “Well, it could be just what it is, I know how much Victor wants to free his son”

Nikki looked at Jack “I know he does, so do I, more then anything in this world, but he wouldn't have gone like that, without as much as talking to me if he didn’t regret what happened between us, or wanted to run away from it, or something”

Jack asked her “What do you think he feels?”

Nikki shrugged helplessly “I don’t know, I... I thought I did, last night when we...but then he left in the morning like that, I don’t know what to think”

Jack said “Not to take Victor’s side here, I think that what ever the case was he should have stayed, but I think everything must be pretty complicated for him too, There’s the situation with Nicholas, and him and Hope are separated“

Nikki rolled her eyes at the name of the “Other woman” and said “She was the one who wanted out Jack, she told him that, the night Nicholas’s trail began”

Jack was shocked “I didn’t know that, that doesn’t sound like something Hope would do, she’s usually so..”

Nikki was annoyed “Jack, if this is going to be a speech about Hope’s moral character, spare me, I'm hardy in the mood”

Jack closed his mouth “Okay, Okay, didn’t say a thing”

Nikki glanced at him “Good”....

At that moment Miguel entered the room, he was surprised to see Jack there“Mr. Abbot, I didn’t realize you were here, would you like me to bring you something to drink?”

Jack smiled at him “No, thank you Miguel”

Miguel looked at Nikki who was sitting on the couch with worry, she looked tired and he could see the tears in her eyes, he didn’t want to upset her but said “Hmm, Mrs. Abbot?”

Nikki looked up at him questioningly “Mrs Carlton called earlier, he wanted to speak with you, think he was concerned about you”

Nikki moaned and buried her face in her hands “Oh god, what did you say to him?”

Miguel looked a her in confusion "That you were out for a ride”

Nikki looked at him and asked “And that’s it?”

Miguel looked confused “Was there something else I was suppose to say to him?”

Nikki was relieved at his confusion “No, no, nothing Miguel, that’s okay..”

Miguel nodded and told them “If you’ll excuse me” and turned to leave.

Jack looked at Nikki who looked even more upset then before and said “I didn't know whether or not to ask you...what’s going on with golden boy?”

Nikki played with her hands “Oh Jack, I feel so horrible about it”

Jack asked tenderly “So how far did things progressed between you to?”

Nikki didn’t look at him “Far enough, he think we are in a comitted relationship and the next thing I do is to sleep with Victor!...I cheated on him, it's that simple Jack”

Jack didn't’ want to make her feel any worse but had to tell her “We talked about you a couple of times”.

Nikki looked at him “And... what did he say?”

Jack told her softly “He’s pretty.. in love with you Nik”

Nikki said quietly “Great...Oh Jack, he didn’t deserve this, he was good to me, he gave me time to deal with what was going on with Nicholas, and didn't pressure me into telling the world and I went ahead and cheated on him behind his back - and with Victor”.

Jack wrapped his arm around her, she looked so unhappy and confused and he felt sorry for her, she didn’t deserve any of this, he asked her gently “How do you feel about him?”

Nikki answered “I care a lot for him, I enjoy spending time with him but....”

Jack completed the sentence for her “You could never love him the way you love Victor”

Nikki just shook her head silently “”Oh, why does everything have to be this complicated for me? Can’t anything ever go right in my life?, my son’s in jail and my love life are a mess, I don’t know where Victor stands and I know how Brad would react if he ever finds out the truth”

Jack tried to comfort her “He doesn’t really have to know”

Nikki looked at him “Jack, I’m the worst liar in the world where it comes to things like that,  I can’t handle the guilt and beside... being with Brad now, at least till I figure out where I stand would be not just lying to him, but to myself as well”.

Jack asked “So, what are you going to do?”

Nikki told him “I don’t know, Jack... I don’t know what I tell Bradley the next time I’ll see him, he think we are two steps away from getting engaged and I go and sleep with my ex husband.”

Jack asked her “Tell me, does Victor aware that you are seeing Brad?”

That just made Nikki start crying again “No, no... I did a pretty good job in keeping him at the dark about that, he knew I was seeing someone, but that was a while ago, and he didn’t touch the subject... Now I feel like I lied to him too”

Jack smiled “Like I know Victor, he is a probably doing a very good job in repressing the fact you are seeing someone, and as for you feeling guilty about him not knowing you were supposedly with Bradley - you really don’t have to explain that one to him - you are not "together".

Nikki didn't’ looked convinced and looked at Jack tiredly and then it suddenly struck her how bad Jack looked.
Her long time friend and at one time husband looked tired and upset, there were bags under his eyes and he didn’t look like his old smiling self.

She touched his cheek “Hey, is everything okay with *you*?”

Jack told her “I don't know what you mean”

Nikki smiled at him “We discussed my life until now, what’s going on with yours, everything okay”

Jack didn’t looked at her “Yea, sure, why shouldn’t it be?”

Nikki told him “I don’t know, you don’t look like your old self, Everything is okay with you and Luan isn’t it?”

Jack heart pounded in pain to the sound of his wife’s name, his terribly ill wife “Aha..”

Nikki approached him “Are you sure? because..”

Jack cut her off “Nik, I have to go, will you be okay?”

Nikki didn’t understand him, he worried her “Jack, why are you not answering me?”

Jack grabbed his coat and kissed her cheek and said “Nik, we’ll be in touch, Call me if you need to talk Suger, alright?”

And without another word walked out the door, leaving Nikki standing there, confused.
 
 

It was 5 PM when Victoria Newman walked into her father’s office in a crestfallen expression, she had just heard that Nicholas would not let any of them see him.
She found her father staring at the city outside his window, she approached him and put her arms around him, he turned to her with a sad smile “Hello my sweetheart”

Victoria hugged her father “Hey dad... did you hear?, about Nicholas?”

Victor nodded “Yes I heard, I won’t accept it, I will go there tomorrow and try to see him, he can’t shut
himself out from us like that”

Victoria sniffed and said “I really hope you’ll manage to convince him to see us, I need to see him, and mom would be crushed if he won’t see her”

Victor turned away from his daughter, trying to hide his reaction to the sound of Nikki’s name “I know she would”
Victoria looked at him confused “Dad, what’s wrong?”

Victor signed “Just about everything my darling”

Victoria asked him “When was the last time you talked to mom?”

Victor asked her “Why do you ask?”

Victoria eyes him “Because she was in a really strange mood this morning, and I thought you might
know why”

Victor didn’t looked at her “well, that’s understandable, she is very upset about Nicholas”

Victoria shook her head “No, No, that wasn’t it, I didn't’ realize that when I was with her, I was too busy sobbing in her arms I guess... but just later I realized how strangely she was acting... Do you have any idea?”

Victor couldn’t look in his daughter’s eye, he knew that if anyone is likely to find out - it’s her, and he didn’t want that to happen, he shook his head and said “No, I don’t know, sweetheart”

Vicki shrugged “Well, try to find out okay?”

She kissed him on the cheek “Dad, I’m going to go, I have work to do”

Victor hugged her and asked “Are you sure you want to work today?”

Vicki smiled at him sadly “Work’s a great escape... that’s your motto dad” and at these words, she walked out.

Victor looked at his daughter and sighed and wondered out loud “I wonder if it’s a good one...”

He opened his wallet and took a picture of him and Nikki out of it, and looked at it.

He needed to talk to her, as unclear things may look to him at the moment, he can’t leave it like that - it was unfair for him and for her... and beside, he *wanted* to see her, she has been haunting his mind the entire day, and images of the two of them making lover in the shower the night before hasn’t left his mind.

He has been soul searching the entire day, and couldn’t find the answers to what he was feeling toward her, they have been through so much together, they had this wonderful, glorious times, but they also had very painful times together, he was reluctant to subject either of them to that kind of pain again.

But no matter what happens, he knew he had to talk to her now, it could not be delayed any further....