Friday, December 12, 2008, Episode #5459

Rick tells Taylor that he's sorry.

Rick goes to Taylor's and finds her sitting alone in the living room. Crouching down near her, he tells her that he's so sorry about what happened. Taylor doesn't respond, so Rick tells her again that he's sorry. Taylor weeps that she's just glad he's OK, since they could have lost him, too. As she bemoans all the great things Phoebe will never get to do now, Taylor asks Rick to tell her how Phoebe died. He tells her that Phoebe died singing in Ridge's arms, but she wants to know about what happened in the car. She knows Phoebe was upset with her, so she wants to know if Phoebe said anything about that. Rick isn't sure it's a good idea to talk about this, but Taylor needs to know and asks him again if Phoebe said anything about her.

Taylor blames herself for Phoebe's death.

Rick assures Taylor that Phoebe did not die hating her, but Taylor feels like she made matters worse by having a relationship with Rick and wishes she had never gotten involved with him. Rick tells her not to think like that, but Taylor can't see how she can deny it's true given how Phoebe left town and went halfway around the world to get away from her. Rick reminds Taylor that she tried time and again to end things with him, but he felt like they loved each other too much to just let it end and wouldn't let her go. He just wishes he would have seen then how doing so hurt both her and Phoebe. He insists that it's all his fault, since he convinced her to stay with him. But that doesn't make it OK, Taylor scoffs, since she's the one who chose to stay with him, even though doing that hurt her daughter. "I hurt her, and I don't know how I'm going to be able to live with it!" she sobs.

Lt. Baker has some advice for Stephanie.

At the Forrester mansion, Lt. Baker tells Stephanie that there's not much he can do about the accident since Rick wasn't impaired by alcohol or anything else. Stephanie reminds him about Rick's erratic driving. Lt. Baker sees that she's grieving and looking for answers, but he needs her to understand that sometimes, accidents just happen. Stephanie insists that whether Rick was drinking or not, the skid marks show that he was driving erratically at high speeds, so she wants him held accountable. Lt. Baker asks her to take care of her family in the wake of their loss and to just trust him. She angrily tells him that she'll trust him to do his job. The police detective promises to update her if he finds anything else and turns to leave. He tells Stephanie that he's sorry for her loss and exits.

Steffy tells her grandmother why she blames herself for Phoebe's death.

Steffy comes into the living room and hugs her grandmother. "This is all my fault," she whispers. Stephanie tells her that this is not her fault, but Steffy contends that Phoebe wouldn't have gone to confront Rick if it wasn't for her. Stephanie thinks Phoebe probably wanted to confront Rick for months over his relationship with Taylor and just got to do it once she returned home, but Steffy believes that her sister would have simply avoided Rick if she hadn't told Phoebe that Rick kissed her. Stephanie is shocked to learn of the kiss. Steffy explains that Rick did it to maker her dad angry, but she saw right through him. As Stephanie fumes about "that little bastard" Rick, Steffy recounts how she slapped Rick and told him to never touch her again. She just wishes she had kept it to herself, since telling Phoebe about the kiss upset her. She's sure Phoebe would never have gotten in that car had she just kept silent. Stephanie tells her that it wasn't her fault and urges her not to blame herself. Breaking into tears, Steffy wonders if Rick knows how his actions hurt her dad and her sister. Stephanie soothes her, stating that Rick is to blame. She tells Steffy to never, ever feel guilty about telling the truth.

Brooke answers Ridge's questions.

As Brooke comes downstairs, she flashes back to Stephanie blaming her last night for Phoebe's death because of the way she raised Rick. Ridge comes in and embraces her. Ridge asks her if she told Hope and R.J. about Phoebe. Brooke says that when she woke up, Hope was already dressed in her flower girl outfit, so she covered that they couldn't have the wedding today due to high winds at the beach. Once she saw how disappointed Hope was, she just couldn't tell the kids about Phoebe's death. She hopes that was the right decision. Ridge agrees that there's no way to explain a senseless death to a child, especially when he doesn't understand it himself. He asks if Rick is upstairs, since he still has questions about last night. Brooke tells him that Rick was gone by the time she got up. Ridge asks if Rick said anything to her, since he can't understand why Phoebe was even in the car with Rick. Brooke recounts what Rick told her about how Phoebe unexpectedly jumped in the car with him in an attempt to vent her anger. Then Phoebe angrily laid into Rick, who said that things got heated and Phoebe went a little berserk. Phoebe then hit Rick and scratched his face as she tried to grab the steering wheel. Rick tried to control the car, but Phoebe tried to hit the brake and pushed down on the accelerator instead, causing the car to skid into a ditch. Ridge asks if she's saying that the crash was Phoebe's fault, since he just can't believe that. Brooke tells him that it was an accident according to Rick, but Ridge finds it hard to take Rick's word about anything these days.

Stephanie wants Rick brought to justice.

Brooke tells Ridge that they may never know what happened in that car. She's not saying it was Phoebe's fault, but there was a fight that ended in a tragedy, so she hopes they can just leave it at that and work through this. Ridge wants to work through it, too, but he's worried that she's being manipulated by her own son. Brooke asks if they can focus on their family, starting with finding a way to tell Hope and R.J. about the accident. "I'm so sick and tired of hearing you call this an accident," Stephanie fumes as she enters the room and begs Ridge not to let Brooke get away with this. Brooke asks Stephanie how she has the gall to again barge in here with her insane accusations. "Again?" Ridge asks. Brooke informs him that his mother stopped by last night, blaming first Rick and then her for what happened to Phoebe. Ridge looks to his mother, who wishes she had put Brooke in jail years ago for the crimes she committed against her kids. It may be too late for that, but it's not too late to bring Rick to justice. Stephanie asks Ridge if Brooke told him why Phoebe was in the car. Ridge says that he knows Phoebe wanted to confront Rick about Taylor, but Stephanie says that was only half of it and informs him about how Rick kissed Steffy. She explains how Steffy is blaming herself since she's the one who told Phoebe about the kiss. Brooke argues that the kiss was just a foolish prank by Rick to get a rise out of Ridge, who can't believe Brooke knew about this already and didn't tell him. Brooke tells him that she just found out.