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"What did you just say?"
Jax sighed. "Corinthos beat us to all 3 deals. Datacom, Northstar and Robertson-Michaels all belong to him now."
"No," Skye said, rubbing her temples. "No! How the hell....oh my God..." Confusion, anger, fear and whole lot of fatigue welled up inside her head. "This can't be happening," she said between sobs.
"Hey," Jax said, rushing to sit down next to her. "Hey, it'll be okay. Don't cry-"
"No, you don't understand....how could I let this happen? I just don't get it-" her voice broke off and she began to cry again, harder this time. All the tension from work mixed with lack of sleep and mysterious nightmares was too much for her. Jax took the overwhelmed woman into his arms.
"Sshhh," he said, caressing her hair. "It'll be okay. Just relax. Everything will be fine."
Skye pulled out of the embrace.
"How can you say that? Everything is shot to hell and it's all my fault."
A look of confusion washed over Jax's face. "Your fault? What do you mean?"
"I....oh God..." Skye buried her face in her hands, leaving Jax to wonder what exactly was going on with the woman he loved.
****
Titans Offices
"All right, everyone, I'm afraid we have some bad news," Jax said as he, Skye, Courtney, AJ and Carly sat down around the table. Skye just shook her head, still in disbelief.
"Well what is it?" Carly demanded.
"We lost 3 big potential acquisitions; Corinthos got Robertson-Michaels, Datacom and Northstar late last night."
"Damn it!" Carly shouted, just as AJ let out a curse of his own, and Courtney slumped down in her chair, a look of disappointment on her face.
"Tracy is not going to be pleased," AJ said sourly.
"I won't be pleased about what?" said a voice. Everyone turned and looked. Tracy and Jerry were in the doorway. Tracy's arms were crossed and her demeanor was hardly that of a happy woman fresh off a beach vacation.
"Anyone care to fill me in? What disaster did you cause this time?"
Skye closed her eyes for a second, bracing herself for what she knew was coming. She stood up and walked toward the Jackses.
"Uh, Tracy, maybe you better sit down-"
"I don't want to sit, I want to know what the hell is going on!"
"Okay...uh....we didn't get the deals you wanted."
"None of them?!"
"Well..."
"Are you telling me that Corinthos got all three of the companies on the list?"
"Yes," Skye said, looking at the ground.
"Ohhh, this is just great!" Tracy shouted angrily. "Just wonderful. I leave for a few days and I come back and things are ten times worse than when I left!"
"Tracy, maybe it won't be that bad....those weren't really the biggest deals we've ever had in mind. I mean look at Northstar; that was really small scale compared to some of the companies we bought a few weeks ago-"
"Northstar is about to quadruple in value, any day now! I was planning on buying it before that happened, and then sell it once its stocks got hot!"
Skye's stomach did a flip-flop. "Oh."
"Oh? That's all you have to say for yourself? You screwed up BIG TIME, missy-"
"Hey!" Jax cut in, leaping out of his seat. "You can't blame this all on Skye-"
"Oh, well I think I can, Romeo! I left her in charge! Three little things I asked her to do, and she managed to ruin all of them!"
"Maybe I could have worked a little harder," Courtney suggested, feeling awful for Skye. The poor woman was beginning to tremble.
"Yeah," AJ added, noticing his sister's stricken appearance. "I should have probably put in some extra effort too."
"Well don't look at me," Carly said, crossing her arms. "I did everything I possibly could." AJ shot Carly a look. When he turned his head back, she just stuck her tongue out at him.
"Maybe you are all a bunch of incapable fools, but I thought of all people I could trust Skye, CEO of ELQ for God's sakes! Well I see I was wrong!"
"Tracy, I'm sorry. It won't happen again-"
"You're damn straight it won't happen again, because I'll never leave you any big responsibilities like that any more!" She stopped to catch her breath, then looked Skye straight in the eye. "What a disappointment."
Jax noticed small tears beginning to form in Skye's eyes. He put his arm around her protectively. "That's quite enough, Tracy. You've made your point. But maybe, you shouldn't have been jetting off for fun in the sun. Maybe you should have stayed around when you knew there were important deals to be made. Maybe you are the one who disappointed this company."
Tracy looked to Jerry for support. Poor Jerry didn't know what to say; he was caught in an argument with the two people he loved most. "Uh....I have to go to the loo," he said, and hurried to the men's room outside the Titans' office.
Tracy stormed to her desk and began shuffling through some papers. "Let's see if I can undo some of the damage you idiots made."
They all worked silently for a few hours. No one knew quite what to say, so instead they all kept their mouths shut. Jax was growing increasingly worried about Skye; he knew Tracy had really hit a nerve, but Skye didn't seem to want to talk about it. She just sat and absent-mindedly flipped through some documents. He even saw her read the same page about four times before picking up a different file.
Just then, Connie popped her head in. "Can I come in?" she asked meekly.
Tracy groaned, but Courtney smiled and waved her in.
"I, uh, I could tell that everyone is kinda bummed, and the silence probably isn't helping," she said. She walked over to the table that Skye and Jax were working on, and put a small radio on it. "I thought a little music might cheer you guys up."
"Thanks, Connie," Skye said softly, attempting a smile but not quite managing it.
"We appreciate it," Jax added. Connie smiled, glad to be of help, and left.
Jax turned the radio on. The last verse of "Across the Universe" by the Beatles filled the room.
"Ooh, that's a great song," Courtney said. "Can you turn it up a little?"
Jax obliged, and Courtney began to hum quietly to herself. So did Carly, and Jerry, and Jax. Tracy just harumphed and Skye didn't even seem to notice.
"It's a great song, eh?" Jax said, leaning in to give her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"What? Oh, oh, yeah." she mumbled. She turned back to her file, and Jax just looked on, his heart breaking for the obviously troubled woman.
"That was 'Across the Universe' by the Beatles," the radio announcer said cheerfully, "on 100.3 WNIC, your station for great oldies. And now, here's a popular romantic hit from the Carpenters..."
"Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near
Just like me
They long to be
Close to you...."
Just then Skye snapped to attention. That song! That damn song from her dreams!
"Why do stars fall down from the sky
Every time you walk by..."
Skye felt like she was going to go nuts. This was just too weird, too much...
"Just like me
They long to be
Close t-"
SMASH!
Everyone turned and stared at Skye, and the busted radio that she had just thrown against the wall.
"Get back to work," Jax barked. They all turned back to their documents.
"Are you okay?" he whispered. Skye began to rub her temples again, and her eyes closed. She was just so exhausted...
"On the day that you were born
The angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair
And gold and starlight in your eyes of-"
Antoinette stopped when she heard a noise. It was quiet, then she heard it again. Someone was at the front door, and it sounded like they were trying to break in!
Antoinette looked upstairs. Althea's door was closed, and Antoinette knew she didn't want to be disturbed. She heard the noise again. Not knowing what to do, she ran and hid in the pantry. It was next to empty; Althea rarely got around to grocery shopping. The shelf was big enough and Antoinette was small enough to fit inside. She opened it just a crack so she could see what was going on. Her eyes widened when she saw the man entering the kitchen. The dark hair in a ponytail...the ripped jeans...she knew him from somewhere....the man began to look through the drawers. Antoinette hoped to God that he wouldn't look in the pantry. Then, he stopped when he opened the junk drawer. She saw him paw around in it for a moment, grab something, then run out.
She waited a few more minutes in the pantry, then, deciding it was safe, crept out and into the hallway. The front door was closed, and there was no one in sight. She ran up to Althea's room and opened the door.
"Huh?" Althea cried, sitting up in bed.
"Mommy, Mommy!"
"What the hell do you want? Get off this bed!" she shrieked as the little girl was climbing atop it. Antoinette lowered herself back onto the floor.
"I'm sorry, Mommy but there was a man downstairs! A bad man!"
"What the hell are you talking about? Have you been drinking my bourbon?"
"No, Mommy, there was a big man and he came in the kitchen!"
"You're crazy as hell, you know that girlie? Now get out of here!"
"But-"
"I said get the hell out! God, a mother can't even get a moment's peace anymore. What a disappointment for a daughter you are, Antoinette. Get out of here, I don't want to see your face."
Antoinette's face crumpled and she began to cry. She ran out of the room and flopped down on her bed. She clutched her teddy bear with all her might. He was the only friend she had now....
"Skye? Skye?"
"Huh?" Skye opened her eyes to see Jax's concerned face staring back at her.
"Are you okay? You kind of went out in space for a minute there."
"What? Oh...no....I'm sorry Jax...I just...I haven't been sleeping well lately....it's really starting to get to me."
Jax put his hand on her shoulder. "Let me take you home."
"But-"
"Come on, you're in no condition to do paper work right now. Let me just take you home, okay?"
Skye looked in his caring eyes, and gave him a half-hearted smile. "Okay."
Jax told Tracy what they were doing, and she grunted a response. He led Skye out of the office and into his car. On the whole way home, she didn't say a word, she just stared out the window. He sighed. What was happening to her?
When they got home, Skye rushed to the bedroom and pulled her notebook out from under her pillow and began to jot down a few things.
"What's that?" he asked.
Skye snapped it shut and quickly pushed it back under her pillow. "Nothing. Nothing." She didn't want Jax to see it, she would be so embarrassed for him to find out that a supposed tough and savvy woman like herself was still afraid of nightmares.
"Okay. If you say so." Jax replied. "I'm going to make some tea, okay?"
"Okay."
****
A few hours later
Skye was looking over a file when she realized she was missing a page. It must have fallen out amid all the chaos at the office. She sighed. Well, she had to go get it if she wanted to get any work done.
She picked up her purse and keys and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Jax asked, looking up from his computer.
"I just have to get something from the office," she said. "I'll be right back."
As she drove to the office, Skye got an idea. She would go see Sonny at his warehouse, and see if she could figure out what the heck was going on. She was really good at getting people to say and do what she wanted, and she figured Sonny was no different. And, she thought, maybe I can undo some of the damage I did with those 3 companies. Northstar was about to quadruple in value. She would offer Sonny a trade; she'd give him her Jabot stocks if he gave her Northstar. How she could get him to make the trade, she wasn't sure yet, but she figured she had enough brains and savvy to pull it off somehow. She smiled to herself as she rode up the elevator and walked into the Titans office.
"Oh. I didn't expect to see anyone here," Skye said, taking note of Carly sitting at the desk, scribbling something furiously.
"I'm just doing some last minute documents for Tracy," she replied.
"Tracy is putting you in charge of a new deal?"
"Yeah, that's right. You screwed up, honey, so she's giving me a shot. And I'm not going to blow it."
"Yeah, well don't count on Tracy giving you all the responsibilities much longer," Skye said, looking her rival in the eyes. "I'm going to fix the problems we've had, and then she'll realize that I still have what it takes."
"Oh, and how are you going to do that?" Carly demanded.
"After tonight, Sonny is no longer going to be a problem," she said confidently, then strode out of the room, leaving a puzzled Carly behind.
As she drove to the Corinthos-Morgan warehouse, Skye realized she should probably call first to make sure he was there. She dialed the number; busy. The voice mail came on, so Skye decided to leave a message. That way, he wouldn't leave before she got there.
"Sonny, it's Skye. We have some business to discuss, so don't go anywhere. I'm on my way over. You've pushed things too far, and it's time to settle the score." She hung up. There. Now he would know she really meant business, that she was no pushover.
She parked in the lot behind the warehouse. This was it; she was going to make Tracy and Carly and everyone else realize that she had the skills and the smarts to save Titans.
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