Tuesday, October 23, 2007, Episode #5172

Stephanie recalls taunting Brooke after the rape.

Stephanie arrives at Brooke's house, remembering how she taunted Brooke just after Brooke was raped. She wonders how she can ask Brooke to forgive her for that. She rings the doorbell, but as she waits, Donna arrives and suggests that Stephanie use the key under the flowerpot - the one one her rapist friend took! As Donna opens the door, Stephanie sees the room is dark, which means Brooke isn't there. She turns to leave, but Donna tells her to wait while she disables the alarm. After turning off the alarm, Donna tells Stephanie that the rape happened right here. She thinks she would have moved after something like that, but Brooke wasn't willing to let the memory of that monster drive her out of her home. Stephanie hopes Brooke can move on, but Donna thinks that's Stephanie's guilty conscience talking. Stephanie denies helping Andy, but when Donna accuses her of telling the rapist about the key under the flowerpot, Stephanie recalls that she did just that. Seeing the guilty look on Stephanie's face, Donna fumes, "What happened to my sister is your fault, Stephanie. You practically walked that sick bastard right through this front door!"

Donna lashes out at Stephanie.

Donna continues to accuse Stephanie of letting her bitterness and anger hurt Brooke, and she doubts that Brooke will ever forgive La Forrester. She notes that the ironic thing is that Stephanie's actions, meant to keep Brooke from Ridge, actually brought Brooke closer to Ridge. Stephanie points out that Ridge is engaged to Ashley, but Donna doubts that marriage will ever happen. She thinks Stephanie is living her worst nightmare, watching Brooke and Ridge together. Stephanie charges that her worst nightmare would have been Thorne marrying Donna, but Donna counters, "You better keep an eye on the temperature, babe, 'cause you're about to be burned."

Taylor sees some of Brooke in her baby.

In the hospital, Nick assures Taylor that the baby is theirs, even though Taylor keeps thinking about how Brooke gave their son a chance at life. That was just a first step, Nick says, but the baby still needs its parents. Right on cue, Dr. Caron brings the baby, still in an incubator, in to see Mommy and Daddy and tells the parents that the transplant went well. Taylor asks if she can hold the baby, but Dr. Caron thinks they should wait on that and leaves the parents to have some time alone with their son. Nick helps Taylor over to incubator and she cries as she watches the baby; she's grateful for what Brooke did, but she doesn't know if she can... She pauses and weeps that she's heartsick for her little boy, and she feels selfish, too. Nick admits things didn't go as they planned. Taylor tells him that she sees bits of both Brooke and Nick when she looks at the baby, but Nick says he only sees their child, the future of their family. "A family that includes Brooke," Taylor insists, but Nick asserts that Brooke was just an egg donor. Taylor however sees the child that Nick's ex-wife gave him.

Nick likes Taylor's choice of a name for the baby.

Nick tells Taylor that it doesn't matter whose DNA is in that baby, because what's important is how they raise their baby to grow up to be anything he wants to be. He guesses that's a cue for them to give the baby a name and asks Taylor to consider some possibilities for names. He tells her he was thinking of a name honoring her family, since the baby already has his last name, and suggests Hayes Hamilton Marone. Taylor likes Hamilton as a middle name, but she admits she likes Jack as a first name, since both her father and Nick's mother share that name. Nick admits he likes the name Jack - not surprising since he's played by JACK Wagner - and says that Jack Hamilton Marone it is.

Meet baby Jack Hamilton Marone.

As Nick and Taylor look at their baby, they laugh about how the baby is destined for great things with his new name. Taylor considers Supreme Court Justice Jack Hamilton Marone, leading Nick to suggest that their baby could be a president, or a Nobel prize winner or Super bowl M.V.P. Nick is sure their baby will be able to do anything, and he thinks the same is true for their family. "We're gonna be just fine," Nick proclaims.

Brooke gives Ridge some answers.

Meanwhile, in Brooke's room, Ridge wonders if the doctor called Nick and Taylor's baby Brooke's little boy because the boy carries Brooke's bone marrow in him. He marvels at the fact that Brooke was a match for a marrow transplant and tells Brooke she made an amazing sacrifice. Brooke proceeds to tell Ridge just how amazing it was that she was a match, since she never expected this when Bridget called her down here. She tells Ridge the lab made a mistake. Ridge asks what she means, so she tells him that she hopes her marrow will be a match that the baby won't reject. But everything is good now, Ridge notes. Yes, Brooke agrees, it is, and the baby will be very loved having two loving parents like Nick and Taylor. Ridge reminds Brooke that the baby has her, too, as his guardian angel. Brooke assures Ridge that even though she gave the baby the marrow transplant, she won't be a part of the baby's life, and hopes Ridge understands that what happened with the baby won't change her relationships with either Nick or Ridge. Ridge doesn't understand, so she tells Ridge how she donated some eggs to a research project, and it was one of those eggs that got implanted in Taylor after a mix-up in the lab. A stunned Ridge asks, "You and Nick have a child?"

Brooke assures Ridge that the baby may have her DNA in him, but this is still the child Nick and Taylor committed to raising when Taylor underwent the IVF procedure. Ridge suddenly understands why Brooke was a match for the transplant and keeps running the idea through his head that the Marone baby is actually Brooke and Nick's. Brooke reminds Ridge that she knows what it's like to have her kids taken away, so she has no intention of making Nick and Taylor live through that experience. She recalls how before she got the phone call, Nick and Taylor were happy, which she was with Ridge, who was ready to commit to her. He may not have said that he was ready to commit, but she saw it in his eyes, and she hopes Ridge's feelings haven't changed.