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Message: <blockquote data-quote="80&#039;s Cha Cha Cha" data-source="post: 247272" data-attributes="member: 6964">Chapter 8    CALIFORNIA—THREE DAYS LATER    In just three days, Lucy’s goal had been achieved.    Gary filed for divorce from Abby and proposed to Valene.    Valene told him he was the father of the twins and her reasons for not telling him before.  In one day, Lucy saw her parents look happy again.  Happy like they were before Abby and Ben had entered their lives.    And yet, Lucy had never felt more empty.    Mitch had been hard to get ahold of by phone.  Lucy realized that what she was going to tell him, shouldn’t be done over the phone anyway.  She went to his hotel and found that he was actually packing to leave town!    He had opened his room door to her before resuming his packing.  Lucy slammed the door before walking over to the bed and watching him continue his task.    “Things are really this bad between us? You couldn’t return my phone messages?”    Mitch stopped packing and looked down at her.    “Lucy, I’m sorry about what happened.  I’m sure Abby is as well.”    Lucy rolled her eyes!    “So your ‘radio silence’ is because your mad about Abby?  Abby who threw me down some stairs and killed our baby!”    “Stop! Stop with the lies! And I haven’t heard from Abby.  She’s made it clear by her own ‘radio silence’, that I meant nothing to her.”    “But that’s my fault, right” Lucy pressed.    “No Lucy.  It’s no one’s fault.  Things just didn’t work out.  I need to return to Atlanta now and go on with my life.  And you need to as well.”    “Meaning?”    “I heard your parents are getting re-married.  You got what you wanted.  Now you need to move on.”    Lucy just stared at him.  She said nothing and she did not move to leave.  Mitch took that as an opportunity to say more.    “Look me in the eye and tell me that you know for sure that the baby was mine?”    Lucy looked him in the eye.    “This baby was conceived out of love.  It was yours, Mitch.”    Mitch sighed.    “Did you even let Harris Ryland know that he could have been the father?”    “Okay.  I get it.  Goodbye.”  Lucy said and walked out of his room and life.  She didn’t bother slamming the door because she didn’t know what it was she had wanted out of this confrontation.  She had never expected a reconciliation or anything. But, Lucy did realize a fact.  An uncomfortable fact that she was not proud of: now that Abby didn’t seem too want Mitch, losing him herself was easier to stand.    She got onto the elevator and went down to the lobby.  But instead of leaving, Lucy walked into the bar, hopped on to a barstool and ordered a drink.  She needed one.  She did not know what direction her life was going in.  Her parents were back together and would not need her.  That and they deserved privacy on the ranch.    Maybe the first step to her new life, was for her to accept the fact that she needed to return to Texas.  Just as she was sipping her drink, someone sat down beside her.  Lucy looked over and then finished her drink quickly!    It was Ben Gibson.    “I hate to see anyone drink and run.”  Ben said wryly.    “I have to go.  I have to help my mother plan her wedding.  In case I never told you this before, I never had anything against you personally, okay?” Lucy said, before looking through her purse for her car keys.    Ben ordered a drink and then focused on her.    “Judith Ryland told me what the two of you were up to, with regards to Abby.”  he said.  Lucy finally found her car keys, but couldn’t let his statement go unanswered.    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” was her reply.    “Really?” Ben asked, his eyes delving into hers.  “Because she seemed to know quite a lot.  She said that you had a deal with her.  You were going to marry her son and in exchange, Judith was going to force  Abby to work in her ‘House of Ill Repute’.  You know, the Ryland’s have to be laundering the money they get out of that place.  And if they’re laundering money, there’s no telling what else they’re in to.”    Lucy was about to deny everything or at the very least, act as if she didn’t know what he was talking about.  But she just shrugged.    “You’re not denying it?” Ben asked.    “Does it matter anymore?”    “No.  I guess not.  Val and Gary are back together, like you always wanted.  Abby and I can go to hell or wherever and you…what do you want?”    Lucy was tempted to ask him why he was interested.  But she found different words coming out of her mouth instead.    “I don’t know. I’ll probably go back to Texas.”    “Abby looks as if she’s settling in there.  You know I had to tell her everything.”    “I’m sure you did.  How did she take it?”    Ben shrugged.    “The problem is, Lucy, is that this is about much more than your petty grievances against Abby and I.”    Lucy eyed him.    “What are you talking about?”    “You know the night that you lost your baby, Abby was not taken to the police station.  She was taken to the local FBI headquarters. Her ex husband is Deputy Director there. Somehow, I don’t see how her supposedly shoving you down some stairs or assaulting Blaisdel, is an FBI matter.”    “Well what she did to Matthew Blaisdel is probably why.  He shot Adam Carrington.  He then threw Abby down some stairs here. The man is wanted in two states.  That’s probably why.”    “Yeah, I don’t think so.” Ben said sipping his drink.  He could see he now had her full attention.  He now had everyone’s full attention now that he had been right about Leif Ewing’s existence.    “Why don’t you think so?” Lucy asked.    “Because the night I told Abby about all of this, she was in Blake Carrington’s penthouse suite.  He left to give us some privacy.”    “Blake was in Texas that night? Why? I thought he had amnesia.”    “Not anymore.  Not after sleeping with Abby.”    “Oh God!” Lucy sighed feeling nauseated.    “Yes, well, Abby also told me that Blake was the one that got her released from FBI custody.  They wanted her to become an informant.”    Lucy was now really listening!    “An informant? About what? Matthew Blaisdel?”    “No and that’s what I’m trying to piece together.  Abby suddenly has no more to say about anything.  Her and Blake seem to be working together.”    “To do what?” Lucy asked.    “The FBI is after someone.  I think that if Abby was asked to work for them, that means they thought she could get close to whoever they were looking in to.”    Lucy squinted at him.    “So the FBI is looking in to Blake Carrington?”    “No.  I don’t think so.  I did think of that since Blaisdel’s reign of terror began with him and his late wife.  I think it’s someone in Texas.  Did you know that your friend, Ann, was in the same hospital you were in? She had pneumonia.  I was with the Ryland’s the night Harris tried to get a Justice of the Peace to marry him and your friend.”    Lucy’s eyes widened!    “No! I mean I knew Ann was there but with her possible claim to Southfork, I didn’t think it was a good idea to see her.”  she said.    “I didn’t think it was a good idea for Harris to marry her when she was still sick, but I kept my mouth shut.  The point is, some FBI agent was there that night.  Someone that I think Ann used to be involved with because Harris was having a fit over him.  And this agent had some of his men take the Justice of the Peace in to his headquarters.”    “Ann was never involved with anyone from the FBI.” Lucy said slowly.  “But there was this guy that was a Theology student at Dallas University.  She was very much in love with him and then they suddenly broke up.”    “What was his name?” Ben asked.    “Joshua.  He was really cute.  We were all in a nature class or something and I tried to crawl into his tent…well..never mind that.  The point is he was not with the FBI.”    Ben stared at her.    “Was his name Joshua Rush?”    “Yeah, that was it!”    “HE was the FBI agent that interrupted Ryland’s sick bed wedding to your friend. And I think he was at the hospital to talk to Ann.  In a professional sense.”    Lucy was uneasy.  Uneasy as hell!  She eyed Ben again.    “So, Judith’s telling you about what we were up to, sent you to Abby, where in which you got all of this other information?  Tell me, Ben, what did it take to get Judith to tell you all of that?”  Lucy asked knowingly.    Ben shook his head.    “I allowed her to have her way with me in one of the hospital stairwells.  It wasn’t horrible.” he said, shrugging.    In that moment, Lucy suddenly saw Ben Gibson differently.  Much differently.  She moved closer to him.    “But it wasn’t great, was it?” she asked.  Ben suddenly looked at her.  Differently.    “No.” he said, suddenly feeling as if a fog of relentless lust had come over him.    “Well,” Lucy purred, pulling on his tie, “you were in Dallas to try and trip me up and were forced to have sex with a crazy woman.  And Judith Ryland is nuts.  I figure the least I can do to make it up to you is to take you to my own ‘stairwell’.  By the elevator out there…”    The bartender, who had heard some of the last bit of their conversation, coughed as he wiped a glass and watched the tiny blonde and the dark haired man, hurriedly leave the bar.  He had heard worse than that.  He had SEEN worse than that!    Meanwhile, Mitch walked towards the checkout desk, lost in thought.  Maybe he had been unfair to Lucy just now? He had convinced himself that the baby she had been carrying was Harris Ryland’s, but what if it had been his? Could he have prevented what had happened out at Southfork, if he had just taken Lucy back to Atlanta with him? Taken her back there and convinced her that the life that they could have made together, with their child, was all that mattered?    He passed by the door to the stairwell, never realizing that Lucy had found someone else, in a span of minutes, to take away any pain over their lost child or relationship. And no one was more surprised by the encounter than Ben Gibson himself.    Lucy bucked up and down upon his bulging length, against a wall, feverishly, as if they had been given a time limit by some unknown force.  Ben could not think about anything else but his great need for her in that moment. He found his mouth closing over hers as she continued her passion fueled ministrations in a blurring fury.  Ben knew he shouldn’t have begun this madness. Not with Val’s daughter.      But in that moment she was not Val’s daughter.  The one that his once fiancee had longed for all of her life.  She was Lucy Ewing.  A young woman that knew more in that moment, about how to please him than…    Ben decided not to go there. Not to compare mother and daughter.  This was just a one time thing and Lucy was hurting and so was he.  It would also be a complication neither of them needed, but could not find themselves backing away from.  Or ending.                                                                                                                    ****    SOUTHFORK- MORNING    A rooster crowed from someplace on the ranch.  Harris had no idea where it came from or why it seemed so damned loud, but it was.  He reached over to pull Ann’s naked body to his, so that they could mold as one, but Harris realized her space was empty.    He sat up, looked at the clock and realized he would be late this morning.  Harris heard splashing, got up, nude, and made his way into the bathroom, which held a sunken in tub and a separate shower.  Annie was in the tub surrounded by bubbles.    “Well that looks very inviting.”  Harris smiled, moving to join her.  But Annie cleared her throat.    “Harris, I think you should just use the shower and go to work.” she said primly.    “Excuse me?”    “Harris…you were kind of loud last night.  You know…during our lovemaking.  I think that maybe you should leave Southfork.”    Harris had just barely woken up, so he couldn’t quite believe he was hearing this!    “You want me to leave for being loud?”    “No! But if you can’t be very quiet…”    “Annie, you own this house and the land! And you need to start acting like it! J.R. and Sue Ellen are the guests and the servants are yours! And once we’re married, darlin’, they will be OURS! And I wasn’t the one that was loud last night.” he reminded her, with a smile.  Annie looked away, turning red!  She felt like scowling! She hated it when he reminded her of things like that!    “I just don’t want J.R. or Sue Ellen to think badly of me.”  she said quietly.  Harris found his way into the tub and pulled her into his lap!    “No one could ever think badly of you, Annie.  Now we’re engaged aren’t we?  They probably didn’t think anything of it.” he assured her and Annie could not help but look at the diamond engagement ring he had put on her finger, right before they left the hospital.  Her mother would have thought it was so pretty.    “But I’ll do it.  I’ll promise to be quieter during our lovemaking if…” he trailed off.  Annie smiled at him.    “What?” she asked playfully.    “If you tell me about what went on between you and that FBI agent.” Harris said, his eyes turning hard.  Ann tried to wriggle out of his grip but Harris’s arms tightened around her!    “Harris, I don’t want to talk about him!  He doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t know why you keep bringing him up?”    Suddenly, J.R. walked into their bathroom, fully dressed! He was wearing a suit and tie and he took off his hat, as if to show respect for their nudity!    “Oh I apologize! Sue Ellen sent me up here when the two of you didn’t come down for breakfast.  I was concerned because I thought maybe an animal had gotten into your room the other night, with all of that noise.”    Ann turned beet red and hid behind Harris, who was not as shy.    “Mr. Ewing, we’ll be down in a minute.” he said firmly.    “I just wanted to let you know that there is someone from the FBI, watching the ranch as we speak. Neither of you know who he is, do you?” J.R. asked in a fake, innocent tone of voice.  He knew damned well that Ann had been involved with someone from the FBI and it set Harris off!     And yet, J.R. was bothered by the FBI presence for other reasons.  Something else was going on here.  And he would find out more when he met with Blake Carrington this morning.  Blake was coming to his office with Abby, of all people, and J.R. didn’t think this meeting would be happening, if something wasn’t wrong.  And the FBI near by like this, unnerved him.  And yet he could think of nothing that the Feds needed to know about himself or Ewing Oil.    So maybe this agent out there, was just someone that was watching Ann.      Or maybe Ann was the target of FBI interest for another reason?    “I most certainly do!” Harris snapped and climbed out of the tub, found a robe and skulked out of the bathroom, leaving a naked Ann to sink under the increasingly disappearing bubbles.  J.R. smiled but did not leave the room    “Honey, if you’re in some trouble, you need to tell ole J.R. about it right now.”    “I’m not in any trouble. I’m sure it’s just Joshua.  I think he thinks Harris is…well…not right for me.  I’ll tell him to go away.”    J.R. did not move.    “How did you become involved with someone from the FBI? Does Lucy know him?”    “Yes.  He was a student at Dallas University.  Actually he was pretending.”    “Pretending?”    “Yes.  He was working on some case and I found out and we broke up.” Ann said.  “Please, J.R. could you leave so I could get dressed?”    “Oh. Of course.”  J.R. said and left the bathroom.  As he walked through their bedroom, J.R. suddenly decided to give Lucy a call and find out what she knew about this stalker, FBI agent of Ann’s.      Out in the hallway,  Sue Ellen approached him!    “What is going on? Harris ran out of this house with nothing but a robe on!”    “Yeah.  He’s handling some business. I would just stay out of it, alright, darlin?” J.R. requested, as he peered out from an upstairs, hall window.  Yep! Harris had gotten into his own car and was headed towards the FBI car!  The car itself started up and drove off as Harris approached.     Meanwhile, J.R. and Sue Ellen headed downstairs, just as the new cook,  a man named Linus Vanders, told them that he was still keeping breakfast warm for Harris and Ann.      Of course, Linus Vanders was really Matthew Blaisdel, in disguise, yet again!  His hair was chalk white and he had a mustache, along with a prosthetic nose.  Joshua didn’t want him working the land or any outdoor jobs if he was going to do this right.    No.  Matthew would have to be in the house if he was going to find out Jock Ewing’s true whereabouts.    Actually though, Matthew had plans of his own.  He had no intention of spying for anyone, nor could he care less who was alive in the Ewing family or dead! He planned on leaving Texas, with Constance Carlyle and good head start.    Matthew was also planning a surprise of his own.  One in which he told Ann the truth about the Rylands, before he left this godforsaken place.   One that would have Agent Rush, Harris Ryland, J.R. Ewing and his wife Sue Ellen, too drugged out of their minds to do anything but watch him escape before their very eyes.</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?