PREVIOUSLY ON SUNRISE BAY...

*Barbara let her emotions get the best of her as she struggled to deal with Gabi’s condition from the car wreck.

*Melissa confronted Keith at the park over Jarrod’s parentage, with less than stellar results.

*Tom relived a very detailed memory of him and Tara.

*Nina confronted Elaine in the hospital about Elaine being the one who murdered her husband. Todd and Luke interrupted the confrontation and were very curious to know what was going on between them.

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Barbara, wearing a white button-up blouse and black pants, makes her way into the stuffy hospital room. A chill runs the length of her spine as her gaze fixes upon her unconscious daughter.

"Honey, please wake up for you mother. I love you, honey. Please just wake up." Barbara gently touches Gabi’s bandaged head. It hurts her to her core that Gabi is hooked up to machines that are helping her breathe.

Suddenly the cell phone in Barbara’s pants begins to vibrate. She reaches into the pocket and walks over near the window. She doesn’t want anyone to realize that she’s using a cell phone in the hospital.

"Hello?" she weakly says. She is drained from getting absolutely no sleep the previous night.

"Barbara? I’m on my way to the hospital." Says the voice of a man.

"Wait, who is this?" Barbara quietly questions.

"It’s Patrick, Barbara. Remember me? I’m the man you completely closed out of your life without a good explanation. Thank you for immediately alerting me that my daughter is fighting for her life. I truly appreciate it."

"Patrick…." She can’t find the words to say. Instead she says the first thing that pops into her mind, "I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. How’d you find out?"

Patrick pauses on the other end of the line before responding: "A friend of mine mentioned a trip she had here and asked me about my daughter when she got back.. I guess it was a widely documented car accident."

Barbara runs her hand through her long black hair, "I feel awful for not telling you, Patrick. I honestly do. At least you know what’s going on right now." Barbara’s tone is still very soft.

"You don’t sound like yourself, Barbara. How is Gabi? How bad is it?" Patrick’s voice cracks.

Hearing the emotion in Patrick’s voice sends Barbara into quiet pondering. After a few seconds of silence Patrick speaks up: "Hello, Barbara? Look, I’m almost at the hospital. We’ll talk about this when I get there."

"Ok…" A single tear falls from her eyes. "I’ll talk to you when you get here…" Shakily, Barbara places the phone back into her black pants pocket. Why did hearing Patrick’s voice make me feel this way?

She wipes the tear from her eye and then turns around to look at her daughter on the hospital bed. It almost feels as though she is in a nightmare and is going to wake up any minute. However, she most definitely isn’t sleeping and this real-life nightmare’s ending is a mystery.

"Oh, Todd. Please stop blaming yourself for this. You had no part in hurting Gabi." Elaine says in a gentle voice. Nina gives the other woman a mean glare. One which Todd and Luke don’t miss.

"Wait, mom, I saw you glaring at Elaine. Tell me what in the heck you have against her. You can’t tell me that you were just catching up with her as a friend." Says Todd in a forceful tone.

Nina gives Elaine a brief gaze and then lets her eyes settle upon Todd’s face as he awaits an answer. "You were seeing things. I never glared at Elaine. Look, Todd. I think you need to go home and take a nap or something. Your friend being in the hospital is taking a mighty toll on you. Come on, I’ll drive you home." She extends her hand out to her son. He quickly backs up.

"Are you sure nothing is going on here?" questions a very suspicious Todd to Elaine.

Oh Todd, if you only knew. Elaine forces a broad smile. "Yeah, everything is fine between me and your mother. Maybe your mother is right; you really need to get some rest."

Todd crosses his arms and lets out a sigh. He has dark bags under his eyes. Maybe they’re right. I feel like I could sleep standing up.

"I’ll drive Todd to his house." This is Luke. "That is, Todd—if you do want to go home and get some sleep."

Nina looks Luke over. "That would be so sweet of you. Elaine, I haven’t told you yet but I think your son Luke is the cutest thing in the world. By the way, Luke, you never called me! Didn’t you want an experienced woman to show you what some real lovin’ feels like?" Nina smiles wide and giggles.

Elaine’s eyes grow wide in disgust at the older woman’s comments to her son. "Excuse me?"

Luke’s face grows red. "I’ve just been so busy, Nina. I’ll be sure to give you a call as soon as I can or not." He then grins as he motions Todd to the door. He tries to change the subject, "So are you going to take me up on that offer, Todd—to take you home?"

Todd doesn’t answer Luke’s question and instead gives him Mom a perturbed glare, "Mom, please learn to behave." says Todd with an embarrassed expression. He then turns to Luke, "Yeah, I guess I’ll take you up on that offer to drive me home. I really do need to hibernate for a while."

"Ok, sure. Let’s get out of here." Todd heads towards the exit with Luke following closely behind

Nina crosses her arms and watches Luke’s rear end as he heads off. That man is sex on a stick, I swear!

She is shocked when Elaine angrily approaches her, "Stop looking at my son like that! That is not right of you to blatantly hit on Luke when I’m standing right here!"

"At least I’m not the one running around and murdering husbands! I don’t want to hear you criticize me again. I’ll hit on whoever I damn well please! Anyway, it was lovely meeting you. However, I have better places to be and prettier faces to look at. This reminds me, I need to find a mirror to put some touches on my makeup." With that, Nina walks off.

Elaine watches Nina as she leaves. What is wrong with that woman?

Friendly chatter fills the living room as Derek, Tom, and Melissa catch up. Tara comes from the kitchen with a large bowl full of cheese puffs. Derek’s eyes seem to light up when he sees them and he digs in before she places the bowl on the coffee table in front of the couch.

"Derek, slow down or you’re going to have the whole thing eaten in like two seconds." snaps Tara.

Because Derek has taken the very comfy recliner, Tara has to sit next to Tom on the couch. She slowly sits down next to him.

Derek continues chowing down on the snack food at the same pace, "Anyway, what was I saying before Tara made my day with these things?"

"You mentioned that the Miami Intensive Care called you today. What did they have to say?" Tom questions as he unconsciously moves closer to his wife.

"Oh, yeah. They called to tell me how Jake is insisting on making sure I’m OK. He’s still on this rant about someone dying. I just don’t get it. I wish my brother would just stop this crazy psychic shit." Derek shakes his head and reaches for another handful of cheese puffs.

Melissa reaches toward the blue bowl and pulls out a single cheese puff,"Well I don’t know what to say about this but Tara you had me freaked out last night with that phone call. I can tell that Jake’s prediction has you genuinely scared."

Derek looks Tara in the face, "Are you buying into all of this still? Come on, Tara. It’s ridiculous."

"Derek, maybe I believe in this kinda stuff more than you. You must keep forgetting about how the hospital told us how he predicted the big house fire. I just can’t ignore that." As Tara says this she accidentally touches Tom’s left leg. She quickly moves her hand back. Tom and her exchange brief glances.

Melissa notices the brief glance between Tom and Tara but excuses it and changes the coversation topic, "Tom, you’re right. I’m starting to really regret confronting Keith."

"You confronted Keith? About what?" Derek’s curiosity is peaked.

Tom gives Melissa a disapproving expression, "Oh, it’s no big deal. She just misinterpreted a situation and jumped the gun too soon. Right, Melissa?"

Melissa goes along with her husband trying to lessen the situation, "Yeah, it was just a passing thought I had. In fact, I wouldn’t even call what happened a confrontation."

Tara gives them a doubtful look, "You guys seem all secretive suddenly."

Melissa is flustered, "Tom, why can’t we just tell them what is going on? They are our best friends."

Tom looks upset and shakes his head, "I don’t want you starting rumors. But whatever, they already know that we’re trying to hide something. Might as well tell them what you suspect."

Melissa looks relieved and immediately delves into the story of how what Mason said about his affair with Shayla made her suspect Jarrod Hetricke’s true parentage. Derek and Tara listen on intently and wear surprised expressions as she moves into how she met Keith at the park earlier to confront him about her suspicions.

After Melissa is finished telling the story Derek responds promptly: "Whoa, Melissa. This is pretty serious. I think Tom is right. Maybe you should have kept quiet about this."

"Derek, I was having a hard time keeping it inside. On top of all of it, I lost Shayla’s diary again. That diary is probably the key to who really is Jarrod’s dad."

Suddenly, Tom rises from the couch and wears an annoyed expression, "OK, Melissa. Jarrod is my nephew. He’s not some child from the Maury show getting a paternity test done on him. I would like if you could be more discrete and respectful about this whole thing." He glances at his watch and heads toward the front door, "Sorry to leave you guys so early but I left my prescription at home and I was supposed to take it a half hour ago."

Melissa grabs her purse and gives both Tara and Derek a hug, "I guess that is my cue to leave as well. It was great catching up with you two. Tara, we are definitely gonna go on a shopping spree tomorrow. It’s been too long!"

"Definitely!" exclaims Tara as she walks her friend to the door. "Tom, you look real tense. Be sure to calm down a little."

Tom sighs, "Maybe it’s the medicine I’m on, I don’t know."

"I know what you need--one of my famous massages." smiles Melissa as she briefly rubs her husband’s shoulders.

"Yeah, that sounds like it might help." Tom says flatly before waving goodbye once more. He leaves with Melissa not too far behind. As Tara closes the door, she can hear as Tom immediately jumps into criticizing Melissa over telling them about the Keith situation.

"Patrick…" Barbara swallows hard as she sees her ex-husband step into the hospital room.

"Barbara. So we meet again. Though I’m not so fond of the circumstances that we are meeting under." Patrick swallows hard and looks Barbara over. He then sadly gazes over at the machine that is giving his daughter life. His eyes begin to water. He slowly makes his way over to Gabi’s bedside.

Barbara breathes in deeply. She catches the scent of the black jacket he is wearing. Suddenly memories rush at her from every angle as she remembers yelling at him to quit smoking. By the smell of his jacket, his smoking habit has increased.

Patrick grips Gabi’s hand within his and gently brushes some stray hair that has gotten in her eyes. "Hey, pumpkin. It’s your daddy. Talk to me."

Barbara slowly walks next to Patrick. She examines his figure. He still looks as built as last she remembers him being. "So, have you gotten shot at lately?"

Patrick turns his attention up to his ex-wife. "Of course not. I think I learned from being a dumbass and chasing an armed man through a dark alley. Anyways, why are you trying to bring up the past? The only reason I am here in Sunrise Bay is to be with my daughter."

"You know I was going to call you and tell you what happened. I just---I…"

Patrick holds his hand up to silence her. "—Just don’t. I don’t even want to hear it. I know how your mind works so don’t try to concoct some lie."

"I wasn’t concocting any damn lie, Patrick. I seriously was in such a state of grief that I forgot to call you. Besides, it’s not like you show any true interest in your children unless they’re in danger."

Patrick throws her an angry glare. "How dare you even say that. For years you selfishly tried to keep them out of my life! That’s all you ever were, selfish and self-absorbed with yourself. I’m glad you’ve found rich man Gary Jackson to satisfy everything I couldn’t give you."

Barbara feels her blood begin to boil. "I am not with Gary for his money! I genuinely care for him!"

"Whatever, Barbara. Whatever. Would you give me some time alone with my daughter? That’s all I am asking from you." Patrick questions in a forcefully calm tone.

Suddenly the door opens and in walks a freshly arrived Brice with a huge bouquet of an assortment of flowers. "Barbara, oh, I hope I’m not interrupting something. May I presume that you are Gabrielle’s father?" Brice turns his head and meets Patrick’s view.

"Yes, I’m Gabrielle’s father. Who are you?"

"Why, the name is Brice. Brice Jackson. I came here because I just had to know that Barbara’s daughter was alright. I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine what the two of you are going through right now." His tone is sincere. Hmm, so that’s Patrick Kane. I guess he’s decently handsome. Definitely better looking than my brother.

Brice hands Barbara the bouquet. "I really am concerned, Barbara. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"No, you’ve already done enough, Brice. The flowers are lovely." She smells a blood red rose that lies in the middle of the assortment.

"Could the two of you please give me some alone time with Gabi?" Patrick annoyedly questions. He looks Brice over. Something about that man bothers me.

"Fine, Patrick. Brice and I will leave you with Gabi." Her tone is still faint. It is very apparent that Barbara is in a state of depression. Brice holds the door open for her and motions her to exit before him. Before exiting the room, he notices that Patrick is giving him a strange expression. He looks like he got up on the wrong side of the bed., thinks Brice as he gently shuts the door.

Once out of the room, Barbara tries her hardest to put on a strong face. However, she is not doing that good of a job.

"Barbara, are you going to be OK? I hate seeing you like this." Says Brice with a concerned tone.

Suddenly Barbara turns around and looks him right in the eyes. "Brice, I barely know you. I truly don’t understand why you are concerned with what’s wrong with my life. I know how much you hate Gary. To you, I should be seen as nothing but the girlfriend to him."

"So you want me to think of you like that? Nothing but Gary Jackson’s latest mistress? Barbara, give yourself some more credit. I barely know you and I think you are more of a man than my brother could ever be."

"Excuse me? More than a man?" She then buries her face in her hands. "Look, don’t even explain that comment. I just really really need a drink right now. I can’t handle everything that’s going on. So thank you for the flowers, but I really need to get out of here." She briefly glances back into the hospital room as her ex-husband is gripping Gabi’s hand. "And now he’s back!! It just keeps getting better and better!" Without notice, Barbara quickly takes off in the direction of the exit of the hospital.

Brice quickly walks up besides her, "Hey, let me take you out and buy you a few drinks, OK? I don’t think you should be drinking alone. I think some companionship would really do you some good, what do you think?"

Barbara sighs deeply and looks the man over. "OK. Whatever. I guess I shouldn’t turn down free alcohol."

Brice lets out a laugh as he puts his arm on her shoulder, "That’s the spirit!" With that, the two of them are on their way out into the tropical air.

THAT CONCLUDES THIS EPISODE OF SUNRISE BAY!

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