Wednesday, March 29, 2006, Episode #4774

Nick tells Brooke that he hates being away from her.

Nick drops by Brooke's basement office at Forrester to tell her how much he hates being away from her. Brooke feels the same way. Nick crosses the room and sits on her desk, pulling her into a kiss that makes her feel like a kid again. Nick guesses that she was a cute kid, too. Brooke thinks about all the time they would have had together had she met Nick first as they kiss again. Nick says all they have now is "right now," but Brooke thinks that's plenty of time to plan for the future. Speaking of their future, Nick tells her that he's consulted with a top divorce attorney, and there's a way for them to avoid the six month wait for the divorce to be final, provided Bridget agrees. Brooke wonders how Bridget would feel about that. Nick reminds her that Bridget made her feelings clear, and she was even the one who had the divorce papers drawn up. Brooke knows that, but she also knows that signing those papers was easy. Getting over the loss of a marriage would be harder for Bridget, Brooke supposes, so she thinks they should just wait the six months to be fully together. Nick stops her with a kiss and agrees to wait.

Bridget thinks Ridge is in denial.

Ridge drops by the beach house to see Bridget and finds her packing. She tells him about Dante's offer to turn his home office into a bedroom for her, which she's accepted to be close to Dominick. Ridge is a bit surprised and wonders if she's rushing into this as a response to something else. She guesses that her mom told him about her plans to divorce Nick. Brooke said she was drawing up papers, he states. And they're signed, sealed and delivered, she tells him; she had to do it, because her ex-husband and her mother are in love with each other. Ridge doesn't think Brooke is in love with Nick. Bridget says that he's in denial, just like she used to be, but she couldn't keep denying it. That's why she thinks it's time her mom and Nick explored their feelings for each other, which is why they're together right now. Not quite, Ridge indicates, thanks to Bridget's stipulation that Brooke and Nick wait six months; that means that "Captain Horn Dog" is going to have to keep is "Barnacle Bill" in his pants until the divorce is final. Actually, Bridget says, that wasn't her idea. She only asked her mom to be discrete with Nick. It was her mom's idea to wait until the divorce was final to be intimate with Nick.

Ridge thinks he has Brooke's decision figured out.

So Brooke made this "ultimate sacrifice," Ridge muses. He thinks he knows what that means. Bridget asks what he means. Ridge tells her that he knows Brooke better too well, and she would never wait six months to be intimate with a man that she was REALLY in love with. Bridget tells him that her mother was just trying to make things easier on her, but Ridge confidently says that he knows the real reason Brooke did this. He recalls the pain that he put Brooke through when he chose Taylor and is sure that Brooke is trying to make him think that she's chosen Nick, to give him [Ridge] a dose of his own medicine. As they go out on deck, Bridget asks if he really believes that her mom would do that just to punish him. That's exactly what she's doing, Ridge predicts. Brooke is going to torture him for six months, and then once he learns his lesson, she'll dump Nick. Bridget tells him that he's wrong: her mother and Nick are in love, and this isn't some sort of game. Ridge disagrees; he thinks he knows Brooke better than anyone, including herself, and she doesn't love Nick the way she loves him. Saying it doesn't make it true, Bridget tells him. Maybe she's given up, he says, but he hasn't, and he's going to get his life back.

Brooke is stunned by Ridge's declaration.

Shortly after, Ridge shows up in Brooke's doorway at the office and tells her he knows what she's up to. "Game on," he smugly pronounces. Brooke asks what he means, so he shares his theory about why she wants to be with Nick but isn't sleeping with him. Ridge now knows she's just trying to punish him, to show him how she felt when he left her for Taylor. It's all just payback, he says, but he's figured it all out, so why don't they just stop this game. Brooke looks at him in disbelief.

Jackie is hopeful about her future with Eric.

Nick arrives at Marone and finds Jackie in his office. She tells him that Eric is on his way over to Stephanie's now to end their marriage, so he can finally be with her. Nick thinks it's a no-brainer that Eric would want to be with his mom over Stephanie. Still, Jackie reminds him, she told Eric that she understood why he had to stand by Stephanie through their ordeal with Felicia. Understanding is one thing, Nick says, but being a doormat is another. All things come to those who wait, Jackie says. Nick asks if she really believes that. She says she does, because she knows Eric loves her. She just has to have a little faith in him.

The sight of Felicia hooked up to the machines shocks Eric.

But the object of her faith is in the clinic with Stephanie, stunned to see Felicia in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines. She's alive, Stephanie tells him. Eric asks what she's done. Dr. Ramirez takes that as his cue to leave. An angry Eric then confronts Stephanie, who reminds him of the research she did into Felicia's condition in San Diego a while back. When they were in the ambulance with Felicia, the paramedics found a pulse, so she had them bring Felicia here, so she could have a liver transplant to buy her some time. Eric is furious! Looking at Felicia hooked up to all these machines, he points out how he promised Felicia that he wouldn't let this happen to her. He drags Dr. Ramirez back in and rants about how he watched his daughter die in her mother's arms. He asks if Ramirez has kids, but then supposes he doesn't since he looks like he's fifteen! Stephanie tries to calm him, reminding him that Felicia is alive! Only because of all these machines, Eric shouts! He can't believe that Stephanie would play god this way. Stephanie reminds him of something he said recently, how he wished he would have had even a mere few minutes more with Felicia, to tell her that he loved her. Well now he has that chance, she points out.