Friday, June 15, 2007, Episode #5082

Rick agonizes over the thought that he shot Grant Chambers.

At the beach house, Rick tries to call Phoebe to apologize for his recent behavior and asks her to call him. After he hangs up, he recalls Brooke telling him that he shot Grant Chambers, not Ridge. When the phone rings, he hopes it's Phoebe, but it's Brooke, who's worried about him. Rick tells his mom that she doesn't have to worry about him going on another shooting spree, because he didn't shoot Grant Chambers, and he refuses to claim that he did just to help Ridge get off. Brooke claims that this isn't about helping Ridge. Of course it is, Rick fumes, and he can't believe this his own mother and Taylor would let Ridge manipulate them into helping him by telling such a blatant lie. Brooke tries to explain, but Rick says he can't talk now and angrily hangs up. Soon after, Bridget returns home from a walk on the beach. Rick is surprised to see her, since he thought she'd be at the hospital. Bridget explains that she took a day off. Rick sees how mellow she is after being tense the last few days and asks what it means. It means that she shouldn't have jumped to conclusions about the eggs, Bridget replies, recounting how she met with the Chief of Staff and the hospital board. Rick frets that the hospital wants to whitewash this situation, but Bridget explains that they just helped her see that their mom's eggs couldn't be implanted in Taylor with all the protocols in place. Rick's glad she's found some perspective and just wishes he had known about this before he saw Taylor yesterday. Bridget worries that he told Taylor the truth, but Rick assures her that he kept mum once he realized that she hadn't talked to Taylor.

Bridget is shocked by what Rick tells her.

Rick wonders if the hospital is just telling Bridget what she wants to hear to protect themselves. Before Bridget can respond, Marsha Caron calls, pleased that Bridget took a day off to unwind. She offers to let Bridget take another day, but Bridget says she'll be in tomorrow. As Bridget hangs up, Rick asks if that was the hospital. She confirms that it was and remarks about the amount of misinformation there. Rick asserts that the hospital staff aren't the only ones misinforming and tells her how everyone is claiming that he shot Grant Chambers. Bridget is shocked. Rick seethes that Ridge wants to wipe his prior offense away by claiming that he covered for Rick, so he can get off with a light sentence. He vows that he'll never forgive Ridge for telling this lie, or for getting Brooke and Taylor to believe it. Bridget can't believe that their mom would side with Ridge over her own son and offers to talk to Brooke, but Rick says that he just wants to spend time with Phoebe, the only one who believes in him. Bridget senses he's worried about Phoebe and asks what's wrong. When Rick doesn't answer, Bridget asks if this is about Ashley. Surprised that his sister knows about Ashley, Rick admits that something happened with Ashley after he and Phoebe broke up. But he and Ashley agreed to end things once they realized Phoebe would need him after Ridge confessed to being involved in Shane's death. Now he wonders if he should tell Phoebe about Ashley. Bridget admires his honesty, she suggests he should just focus on Phoebe for now if it's really over with Ashley. Rick thanks his sister for the advice and goes to find Phoebe.

Ashley is taken aback by Phoebe's question.

As she waits for Ashley in the lab, Phoebe remembers the voice mail message on Rick's phone from the mystery woman bidding him "Au revoir" and wonders who the woman is. When Ashley arrives, she jokes that Phoebe has her busted for coming in late. She then explains that she was on the phone all morning with her daughter Abby, who will be ending her visit to Genoa City early after finding out that her dad is getting divorced. Seeing that Phoebe's distracted, Ashley apologizes for rambling about her own problems and asks what's wrong. She guesses it's about Phoebe's dad. Phoebe admits that what her dad is going through is hard on her, but she's also worried that Rick is seeing someone else. Ashley asks Phoebe why she's doubting Rick, so Phoebe explains about the voice-mail message she heard and wonders, from the way the woman said "Au revoir" if the "slut" is someone from Paris, or maybe a model. She frets that someone like that might even be working here with Rick, which is why she came to Ashley. She's hoping Rick might have said something to Ashley in passing, since they work together. Ashley points out that Rick works around beautiful women every day, but she's sure that Phoebe is the one Rick wants to spend his life with. Phoebe states that she thought the same thing, but something has changed since she and Rick broke up and she doesn't know what it is.

Phoebe asks Rick who the "other woman" is.

Ashley asks Phoebe if she talked to Rick. Phoebe explains that she feels like Rick is avoiding her; if he's doing it because of another woman, she has to find out. "Find out what?" Rick asks, coming in at the tail end of the conversation. He asks Phoebe if she got his message. "Like all of the messages I left for you and you haven't responded to?" Phoebe asks. Rick tries to explain, but Phoebe states that she knows that something else comes first with him - or should that be someONE? Ashley thinks Rick and Phoebe need some privacy and asks Rick if he can just come with her first to sign off on an important order, but Rick says he'll take care of the order when he's done here. After Ashley leaves, Rick asks Phoebe why she can't even bring herself to look at him. Phoebe asks if she matters to him. Rick inquires how she can even ask that, but she argues that she can't help it with the way he's been avoiding her lately. She retorts that she's supposed to be his girlfriend, but he's treating her like a guy does when he... She stops herself and asks him to please be honest and admit it if there's someone else. "Who is she?" she demands to know.

Nick wants an answer from Brooke.

Brooke is looking at a photo of her and Rick when Nick drops by. Brooke tells him that Hope's out in the pool with Catherine, but Nick says he's here to see her. Seeing the photo, he asks what's wrong. Brooke doesn't want to talk to him about it, so Nick agrees to mind his own business - which brings him to the reason he's here. He reminds her that he made her an offer to revive Brooke's Bedroom for his business, Forrester Creations, and agreed to send over a contract, but he decided to drop it off in person. "You have thought about this, haven't you?" he asks.

Brooke tells Nick about Grant Chambers.

Taylor comes in behind Nick and tells him that Brooke has other things on her mind. Nick asks his wife why she's here. Taylor tells him that Brooke asked her over. Nick asks what's going on, so Taylor suggests that Brooke fill Nick in. Brooke then tells Nick all about how Rick long ago shot a man she was once involved with, Grant Chambers and explains how Ridge came to take the blame for the shooting to protect Rick. She then tells him how Ridge let the truth about the shooting slip to Rick. Nick realizes that Rick had no memory of the shooting until Ridge opened his big mouth. Brooke asks if he's insinuating that Ridge did something wrong. "I'm not insinuating anything," Nick qualifies. Brooke assures him that no one, including Ridge, wanted the truth to come out this way, but Rick is furious with Taylor and her now that Rick's been told what happened. Nick understands why Rick would think that his own mother and Taylor are taking Forrester's side over Rick's. Brooke explains that Rick thinks Ridge cooked this whole story up to get a lighter sentence, but Nick thinks he understands that, too. He asks Brooke why she would want to risk her own son going to jail just so that Ridge can go free.

Taylor assures Brooke that she's OK with Brooke working for Nick.

Brooke wishes this never happened, and she wishes that she could have kept Rick from ever finding out. But now that he has, she's relying on Taylor's professional instincts to help Rick through this one step at a time. She asks Taylor, "Do you know how grateful I am to you?" Taylor says that she hasn't done anything, but Brooke points out that Taylor was the first person she came to asking for help with this. Taylor suggests that Brooke came to her for her professional opinion, but Brooke asserts that she also came to Taylor as a mother who knows what it's like to protect her children, just as Brooke is protecting Rick now. She's confident that Rick is in good hands with Taylor, and she hopes this might help her and Taylor set aside the mistrust that's always been between them. Nick suggests they forget about Rick and Ridge and get back to the reason he came. He assures Brooke again that Taylor is OK with her working at Forrester Creations. Taylor agrees that she's never felt more secure because of Nick's commitment to her and the baby,. "Just because you two would be working together doesn't mean our marriage is going to go down the tubes," Taylor states.