Episode 4: Outs

Taylor is in the hospital room. Through the glass, Ridge tells her what the doctor has told him. "They're going to put you on different meds, doc. The ones you're on now won't be effective." Taylor's eyes go wide as the doctor tells her the name of the medicine. "No. No, you can't put me on that! You can't! It's too dangerous for the babies." The doctor sighs. "Taylor, if you don't take it, I'll be forced to put it in your food." "Then I won't eat! I will not allow any substance that will harm my babies to go into my body." The doctor nods. "All right. We won't put it in your food. If you'll excuse me, Taylor, I have another patient to see to." Ridge follows the doctor out. "Doc, I'm really worried about doc," he says when they're outside of the room. "Don't worry, Ridge. She'll be fine. But first I need your permission for something." "What?" "Well, Taylor is obviously not in her right mind. She cannot make rational descisions related to her health." "Obviously." "So I need you, as her closest living relative, to give me perission to put in an IV against her will." "Won't she just rip it out?" "I'll station a nurse to make sure she doesn't. To have any chance of survival, your babies need their mother to be healthy, and she'll be a lot healthier a lot faster if she's on this medication." "I understand that, doctor. I'm not sure Taylor does, but I do. Put her on the IV." "Thank you, Ridge."

Stephanie and Becky are still in the kitchen (see Episode 3) having breakfast and talking about Little Eric. "How did you know he had a heart-shaped birthmark?" Becky asks. "Well, Amber told me," Stephanie says, thinking quickly. "You know, Becky, I'm going to babysit for Little Eric tonight. You could come over and help me. I have something I want to show you, anyway." "What is it?" "It's a surprise." "I like surprises." Just then, Eric walks in. "Becky. How good to see you. I've been looking for you this morning." "For me, Mr. Forrester?" "Yes, Becky, for you." "What for?" "Well, Becky, I looked over your resume--" "What resume?" "Exactly. You look good, you sound good, you act good, but you have no experience with which to fill out a resume and no college education. You don't even speak French." Becky's eyes begin to water. "I didn't get the job." "No, Becky, you got the job." "But you just said--" "Well, I'm good friends with Lauren Fenmore, you know--" Stephanie shoots a glance at him and he clears his throat. "Well, she knows people in Genoa City, where Newman Enterprises is located. She says that they hire people who have no experience but look good all the time. And it works well for them, so I thought I'd try it. Besides, I'm willing to put up with any amount of incompetence just to get Amber to stop whining about getting you this job." "Amber?" "Yes, she really wants you out of town." "I bet she does," Stephanie murmurs.

Amber is in pout mode on the sofa. As Rick enters the room, he trips a hidden sensor and she immediately flips into perky mode. "Honey! There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" "But you were just sitting there," Rick points out. "You weren't looking anywhere." "Well, I was trying to think of where you might be!" "I was in the bedroom. Did you try there?" "Oh, no! I was oging to try that next! Listen, honey, I've got a great idea! Let's go out to dinner!" "Amber, how much caffeine have you had?" "None! Let's go out to dinner tonight! Stephanie says she'll take care of the baby and we can have a special night alone!" "I'll go if you'll answer a question for me." "What?" "Why do you want Becky out of town?" "Because our baby is really her baby!" Realising what she's said, Amber claps both hands over her mouth. "I mean..." "Her baby? First it's Raymond's, and now it's hers? Good bye, Amber. I'll have divorce papers delivered to you as soon as possible." He walks out the door, presumably to tell Kimberly the good news.

Brooke knocks on Thorne's door. When he answers, he finds her standing there in her bikini. "Brooke. Did ou drive all the way over here in that?" "No. I was wearing clothes, but I decided it was much too warm for that nonsense." "Well, uh, what do you want?" "Can I come in?" "Um, sorry--no shirt, no shoes, no entrance." He closes the door in her face. She knocks again. He opens the door again. "What is it?" Thorne asks, clearly annoyed. "I want you to make love to me," she says in a sultry voice. "Go away, Brooke," he replies with a sigh. "Why?" she pouts. "Am I not attractive enough? Am I wearing too much? That can be fixed, you know." She drops the top of her bikini. We, of course, only see the straps disappear from her shoulders and the garment hitting the sand. Thorne shakes his head and sighs. "You just don't get it. I don't want you. You've caused too much trouble already. Besides, the way you flaunt yourself is disgusting. Go away."

Just offstage, we see Darlene Conley (Sally) leafing through a script. Schae Harrison (Darla), Michael Swain (Myles), and Mick Cain (CJ) are peering over her shoulder. "Well?" Schae asks impatiently. "Not a word," Darlene announces. Michael sighs and shakes his head; Mick rolls his eyes. "This is nuts," Mick says. "At least you get to make a few comments about Kimberly and Rick now and again," Michael tells him. "Yeah," Darlene agrees. "The rest of us good-for-nothings just get to wait around until there's a plotline for us!" Jacob Young (Rick) walks over. "Hey, guys. What's wrong?" They all stare at him disgustedly.

What you can learn from this:

• Taylor is Left Out of the Loop
  Taylor. Taylor, Taylor, Taylor. Take the g**d*** meds. When is she going to remember that those babies are dependent on her health? If she dies, so do they, at this point. If she lives a little longer (long enough for them to mature enough to be delivered), I would think they'd be born rather sickly, having picked up on their mother's TB. Is it not worth the risk to keep mother and babies healthy? I pictured Taylor refusing to eat here because it magnifies how stubborn she's being. Those babies cannot survive without her, and she has a better chance of surviving if she takes the medication. End of story. Take the meds.

• Becky is Flown Out of Town
  Eric has proved now that characters are not the only thing to cross over between B&B and Y&R. Remember the girl Eric was interviewing when Amber barged in? She was excellently qualified, and Eric seemed very impressed. But then Becky, whose only work experience is as a maid in a hotel that she got fired from for attitude, runs in and steals the job. Surely Eric doesn't like Amber so much that he would just oblige her like this!

• Stephanie Lets a Secret Out
  Although I intend for these episodes to be standalones, this seemed the natural continuation of the last episode. I like this storyline and I think I'll follow it through next week. Knowing from the "rags" that Becky's due to find out about Baby Eric this week, there should be some fun material to play with in her reaction. Unfortunately, with school (and evenging courses) starting, I can't watch as much as I used to, but I can still get updates from various places and put together a decent picture of what has happened.

• Amber Strikes Out
  Has anyone else noticed the pattern in Amber's behaviour?

  I'm just waiting for Rick to find out about this. I predict that he finds it just one too many lies and dumps her as he ought to have a long time ago. I think I'm going to play with this storyline some more in the future; it will be interesting to see how CJ is affected by all of this. After all, by now he considers Kimberly "his" girl; what happens when Rick is suddenly free again and she goes running back to him?

• Thorne Shuts Brooke Out
  I used to sympathize with Brooke. Sometimes. Right now, though, she's just being a witch! And a tramp, at that. She can't leave well enough alone; she still feels the need to disrupt the Forrester family by trying to complete her collection of ex-husbands. And why does she feel that showing up scantily clad at someone's house will automatically make him fall in love, or at least into bed, with her? She's far too blatant, and one of these days one of her men is going to be turned off by it.

• Someone is Left Out
  I realise that right now the show's time (limited in any case) is taken up by two major storylines, Amber/Rick/Eric III/Becky/Kimberly and Taylor's TB. However, I still miss Sally, and with Sally come Myles, Darla, and CJ, among others. Couldn't they just have a little storyline, maybe something just starting, or get a part in an existing one? It seems to me that CJ, as Kimberly's current boyfriend, should at least have a bigger part in the whole thing with the baby switch and Rick and Kimberly's relationship. He could complain to his mother, who could share her woes with Myles and Darla... And of course Myles is Kimberly's Dad, so why doesn't he have a small part somewhere? I hear that today they're bringing up the Brooke-and-Thorne issue again. I'd certainly rather see these guys.

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