This story begins on the night of Sheridan and Luis's engagement party, a few minutes after TC attacked Julian...

Julian Crane gulped back a swig of brandy and leaned back in his mahogany desk chair, sighing in relief as his muscles relaxed into the leather-covered cushions. He had already had one fiasco too many for tonight, and the imposter scheme to break up Sheridan and Luis had only just begun. For once though, that was the least of his problems.

Julian cringed as he brought his fingers up to the bright red bump that was beginning to swell underneath his eye, still slightly in shock from the attack he had received only minutes ago. TC Russell, Harmony's own modern-day Caligula, had attacked him out of nowhere, growling out accusations, accusing Julian of ruining his entire life, destroying his future. For a few moments there, Julian had been quite afraid that TC would take both of his.

To think he owed his very existence to none other than Sam Bennett, his deceitful wife Ivy's former lover. Julian frowned at the bitter irony of the situation.

At least he had already repaid that debt.

Turning to find a picture of Ethan staring back at him, Julian flipped it over and slammed it down on the desktop.

No woman would ever deceive him like that again. No woman would ever get the chance. The fact that Ivy had spent so many years passing Ethan off as his son, all that time knowing he was actually Sam Bennett's…God, had he only married Eve instead.

Eve…sweet, Eve. Julian often wondered what his life would have been like had things turned out differently between them.

Strolling over the large arched window behind his desk as the door behind him closed shut, Julian stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the sight before him outside on the lawn. Raising one eyebrow, his mouth twisting in a slight squirm, Julian moved closer in order to hear what was being said.

"I'm going to kill Julian Crane. I swear to you, Eve. I'm going to kill that man!"

TC Russell stormed across the grass, the hatred in his eyes gleaming so strong, they almost seemed to be two shiny black beads. Marbles reflecting the angry moonlight.

"TC, honey…" Eve rushed after him. "You've got to calm down."

"He ruined my knee and my tennis career, Eve! Because of that scum, my own Father died of a broken heart well before his time. Julian Crane doesn't deserve to live Eve! Hell, he doesn't even deserve to breathe!"

"What about me?" Eve pleaded. "The girls? If you killed Julian now, then you would spend the rest of your life in prison, and what would that do to us? TC, Julian Crane is not worth all that, is he? I mean, look at him, TC. All he is is a drunk, sorry, middle-aged man who has nothing left to look forward to in life. His marriage to Ivy - it's nothing but a sham. Ethan, the only good thing he has in his entire life - ripped away from him, just like that, all because of Ivy's vicious lies. Why Julian Crane has so little left of a heart that he doesn't even give a damn about his own sister!"

Eve's words stung Julian to the very core. Taking a faulty step backwards, Julian swigged down some more brandy, grabbing the desk for support. He had always known that Eve despised him, but he had no idea her opinion of him had sunk this low.

"Have I become a monster?" Julian wondered aloud, staring off into the rich reds and brown's of the library's walls.

"He took away my life, Eve!" Julian heard TC shout. "He took away my Father! Why, when I finally get my hands on that scumbag once and for all, I'm going to pay him back, finally have my revenge on him for what he did to me that night!"

"You don't know for a fact that Julian caused that accident!"

"If only you did know, TC," Julian frowned, his eyes falling sadly. "If only you knew what really happened…it would destroy your life forever..."

**1976**

"I'm free!" Eve let out a wild cry into the night, her ebony hair flapping wildly in the wind behind her, the glitter of the stars through the open sunroof of Julian's silver Aston Martin DB5 shooting straight down from the sky and into her dancing eyes.

"Yes, darling," Julian chuckled devilishly, sliding one finger under the small knot that was binding her skirt around her waist and letting the tiny piece of silk fabric fly off into the heavens, "it appears you are."

Eve glanced down at her bare legs and laughed demurely "My, my," she said in a low, sexy voice, raising her eyebrows and meeting Julian's soft brown eyes with her own. "Someone's feisty tonight…"

Eve ran one painted nail up the inner part of Julian's thigh, smiling seductively when she had achieved her goal.

"Oh, Eve," Julian said, throwing his head back against the driver's seat, "you do have the most wonderful ideas."

A loud horn blasted Julian back into reality as a dark blue Mustang swerved to avoid the dangerous path he had been barreling down upon.

"Whoopsie!" Julian laughed, slamming on the breaks and swerving the car roughly off the main road to a stop. Julian smiled down at his lap and then up at Eve. "Sorry about that dear, but I think Little Julian's trying to get some attention here." Julian gave Eve his best puppy dog impression. "Come teach him his lesson, Evie Wevie. Please."

Julian bent down and brought her delicate hand to his lips, breathing in deeply as his nose came in contact with the sweet smell of her luscious skin. He had never met a woman like Eve in his entire life, and wherever she might take him, he was more than willing to go along for the ride.

Soft and sumptuous, mysterious and exciting, Eve had an edge to her that Julian found impossible to resist. Most of the other women he bedded were only good for one thing and one thing only, spending the rest of their evenings together boring him to sleep with their simple, frivolous conversation, the dazzle of their beauty quickly fading away the second they opened their mouths.

But Eve wasn't like that. In fact, Julian had never met anyone like Eve ever before. Unlike the other girls Julian had dated, slept with, whatever you wanted to call it, Eve never wasted her time with idle conversation. When the subject of her personal life came up - her family, friends, etc. - she usually turned strangely secretive. In fact, Julian pondered, he actually knew so little about her, that he often wondered if he were not making love to a total stranger.

Only more to fuel his fantasies about her. All Eve had to do was give him her special smile, and he was a goner. Watching her luscious lips slowly creep up her face until they reached the tips of her secretive chestnut eyes - sometimes it was all he could do to keep from dropping to his knees and asking her to marry him, right then and there. To run away with him to somewhere far, far away from Harmony, far away from his Father, far, far away from the pressures recently being placed upon him. In fact, sometimes he would get so wrapped up in her heavenly curves that he almost believed that placed actually existed.

His Father wanted him to marry soon and marry well. A little blond ice-queen from the right side of town - none other than the governor's daughter herself, Miss Ivy Winthrop.

Although Julian found Ivy quite attractive and charming in her own, biting way, she would never be more to him than any of his other conquests. She would never be Eve.

Julian smiled, sinking further down into the leather exterior of the car, chills running up and down his spine as Eve tickled his body with her butterfly kisses.

"Julian," Eve said, lowering her eyelids as she slowly climbed onto his lap, deliberately wrapping one leg slowly around his waist, running her toes up and down his spine as she brought around the other. "I want to drive it."

"Well, dear, I think you're already doing a mighty fine job of that," Julian laughed mischievously.

Eve smiled and raked one finger down his chest. "That, too," she said, raising her eyebrows suggestively. "Later. But, Julian, right now, I want to drive your car."

"My car?" Julian asked, taken aback by her question.

Eve gave him a pouty look.

Julian considered this for a moment. He had never let anyone drive his Jezelda before. His Aston Martin. His prize beauty.

"Oh, what the hell!" Julian laughed, expertly removing her bra from under her shirt and flicking it off into the wind. His hand still buried underneath the soft silk of her shirt, Julian cupped the satin flesh of her silky smooth skin. "But only if you promise me this later…"

Tracing his fingers in light circles around her nipples, Julian leaned down suddenly and took one of them between his lips, the moisture salivating out of his overheated mouth bleeding his want right through the thin skin of her silk shirt.

Eve smiled as she pushed him away. "Later. I promise."

Eve, undaunted by her half-nude state, got up there right in the middle of the road and walked over to his side of the car, unabashed.

"It's a wonder what a little lude will do for your soul," Julian laughed, remembering just how uptight she had been the first time he slipped into her, backed up against the wall of a pulsating Studio 54. Yes, Eve had always been a hot little number, but now that he had figured out how to loosen her up, she had become nothing short of a wildcat.

"Meeee…oowww!" Julian rolled his tongue and licked his lips as he stepped outside to let her in.

Eve gave him a coy smile and squeezed past in him into the driver's seat, brushing her round bottom lightly against his arousal as she moved past him.

Smiling widely, Julian hurried over to the passenger side door and hopped in.

"Where are we going?" he asked, leaning in closely to her and smiling mischievously.

Eve threw the car into first gear. "Anywhere," she said, abruptly turning to face him and looking him straight in the eyes. "As long as it's far away from here."

"Oh, Eve," Julian said, throwing his head back onto the seat and sighing. "You do understand all of my wildest fantasies."

Eve smiled knowingly before pulling onto the road. She had never come straight out and said so, but Julian could tell just by the look in her eyes that she completely understood him. She always did.

"Let's run away," Julian said suddenly. "We'll change our names. I'll be John F. Kennedy and you can be my Marilyn Monroe. We'll tour the world, stop at every port on the Harbor, see everything there is to see."

"And at night?" Eve raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"Why, we'll make passionate love, of course."

Julian saw Eve's eyes light up in pure, unadulterated happiness, an emotion that rarely surfaced on her face.

"Is that a yes?" Julian asked.

"How's this for an answer?" Eve pressed the gas pedal to the floor and within a few seconds they were flying down the road. Not a care in the world. Not a burden to tie them down. They were finally going to be free. Free of their own varying pressures, free from the dull routine of everyday life.

Free to be with each other.

Julian could picture it all right now. He and Eve, marooned on a remote tropical island, lying peacefully in each other's arms watching the rosy sunset disappear into the orange sky. Not a care in the world. Not another soul with which to bother.

Playfully chasing each other through the crystal beads of sand, Eve's crimson sarong flowing in the small breeze behind her, echoing the movements of her silky raven hair. He, tackling her to the ground, teasing her body with lighthearted tickles. She, not for a moment letting him get the best of her, responding to his attack by spraying a splash of cool ocean water directly into his face.

"I can see it all now!" Julian sighed, blissfully resting his head back on the seat.

"So can I!" Eve leaned forward in her seat, her eyes glazing over as she stared straight into a world visible only to her own eyes.

She never saw the old Datsun coming. Never heard the blast of it's angry horn. Never saw the desperation pooling in the eyes of the man who sat paralyzed with fear behind its wheel.

Before Julian realized what was happening, everything went black.

***

"Are you Julian Crane?" a nurse asked, her kind blue eyes slowly coming into focus above him.

"Are you an angel?" a slightly delirious Julian asked. "Am I…I in heaven?" Julian motioned for the nurse to come closer. "I always thought I'd end up in the other place," he whispered, cupping his hand over his mouth as he laughed at his own silliness.

"No, Mr. Crane," the soft-spoken woman said, sitting down next to him on the stool. "You were in a serious car accident tonight. You and your girlfriend were both rushed to the hospital in serious condition, along with the driver of the other car."

Bright lights flashed before Julian's eyes, as he saw himself fling his arm out in front of the woman beside him.

"Eve!" Julian exclaimed, suddenly completely sobered.

"Don't you worry. Ms. Johnson is stable and recovering," the nurse said, reading his thoughts. "As soon as she is conscious, the police will need both you and her to give statements about what occurred tonight."

"Are you sure she's going to be all right?" Julian asked anxiously. If anything ever happened to her…it had been his fault she was driving the car. Certainly, he had been drunk, but she had been drunker. Not to mention high. He should had never let her get behind that wheel…

The nurse patted his hand. "Don't you worry. Ms. Johnson knows quite a few people on the staff here…"

"She does?" Julian shook his head in confusion.

"Of course," the nurse responded, obviously surprised at Julian's confusion. "We all love her. She's been volunteering here for years…got quite the glowing recommendation from Dr. O'Hare for Med. School. She's going to make a fine doctor someday, don't you think?"

Julian's mouth dropped open as the nurse got up and left the room. Eve was planning to be a doctor? She had never told him that.

The consequences of her actions stopped his blood dead cold in its tracks.

This whole night - the accident, the drugs - it could ruin her chances forever. What little he did know about her, he knew that she didn't have any kind of close relationship with her parents. Surely, she would never be able to count on them to bail her out this mess. And what about his own Father? If Alistair were to ever find out about this, he would destroy Eve with a snap of his fingers, never once looking back.

Her future would be tarnished forever. She would never go to Med. School, never become a doctor, never get the chance to live out her dreams. Just because his entire future would soon be destroyed didn't mean he wanted that to happen to her. He couldn't let this one night of foolishness destroy her entire life.

His heart pounding, Julian slowly got up from his bed and wrapped a robe tightly around himself. He had to get to the police before Eve or the other driver had a chance to tell their side of the story…

***

Julian strolled into the Crane mansion the next morning, rubbing the side of his head with his hands. His temples throbbing from all the events of the night before, Julian squinted his eyes at the bright sunlight glaring in through the floor-to-ceiling cathedral windows his mother had insisted on decorating the main parlor with. She said the sunlight made her feel young and happy again. Right now, Julian was feeling anything but.

"Damn those maids," Julian growled, yanking on one of the curtains and pulling it shut. "Don't they ever stop to consider that maybe not every bird in Harmony needs to be fooled by these boorish windows' spotless appearance."

"The bird that thinks he can fly straight through these windows isn't as big a fool as you, Julian," Alistair's voice boomed as he marched into the study. "How many times have I warned you to stay away from that harlot? Now look at the mess she's gotten you into…"

Julian cringed, the pain in his temples multiplying by ten at the sound of his Father's harsh reprimand.

"But, Father..." Julian begged. "It was an accident. I was distracted. I didn't see him coming." Julian's mind raced into overdrive. After all he had gone through last night with the police, he couldn't slip up to his Father now. If Alistair were ever to find out the truth, he would destroy Eve in a matter of seconds.

"That's the biggest understatement I've ever heard. The police told me all about your confession, Julian. How you hit but didn't run." Alistair slammed his fist down on a nearby end table. "What were you thinking, boy? We Cranes never get caught. Why, just because you can't control Little Julian, I almost lost the entire Crane empire. Imagine the scandal that would have ensued if it were to come out that you almost killed another man because you were too beguiled by your African-American mistress. I will not stand for this bad press, Julian. As God as my witness, I most certainly will not!"

Julian brought one hand up to his eye and slowly let it drop down the side of his face. "Father… I was drunk…"

"Well, there's a new one…Tell, me Julian, when are you ever not drunk?"

Julian paused for a moment to think about this, his face contorting upwards as he desperately searched his mind for an answer to that question. "Wa…Wait a minute, Father. I told the police I had had too much to drink. Why didn't they arrest me for DWI or make me take one of those silly tests or something?"

Alistair shook his head and sighed. "I see you've learned absolutely nothing from all my years of training you. I can only hope that your first-born son proves to be smarter than you, Julian. God knows I'm not going to leave my entire fortune to Sheridan."

Julian gave his Father a perplexed look.

"I bribed them, Julian. Do I have to spell it out for you? Blackmail. Extortion. Espionage. It's how we Cranes operate."

Julian's eyes opened wide at his Father's admission.

"Don't look so shocked, Julian. I couldn't very well have the entire world find out that my first-born son plowed down the man he was supposed to defeat and humiliate today on the tennis courts because he was drunk on a date with his dirty black whore."

Julian felt his face grow flushed with anger as a strength he never knew possessed the inside of his body. Grabbing his Father by the collar, Julian snarled at him. "Don't you EVER speak about Eve that way ever again. Do you understand me?"

"Julian," Alistair laughed, for the first time that morning slightly amused, "I never realized the tramp means so much to you."

"I'm warning you, Father…" Julian shoved his Father back and gave him an angry glare.

"Threaten me all you want, Julian. You know in the end, I will always win. I will always get my way."

The truth of his Father's words pounded straight into Julian's heart.

"That's more like it," Alistair said, straightening his tie with a satisfied look as he watched his son's suddenly subdued state. "Now," he said, strolling over to his son and slapping him on the back, "straighten up, boy. We have an important business meeting to attend to in less than an hour. I want to see you in my office sharp and fresh in forty-five minutes. Oh, and by the way, don't let your mother see you in this current state of yours. Heaven knows your sister already causes her enough trouble as it is."

"Yes, Father," Julian mumbled, hanging his head. He supposed he shouldn't let it get to him, but that man…he just always knew exactly what he could say to cut Julian the deepest… "Julian," he said to himself, "You need to calm down… You just need to relax. Then you get can through this entire farce of a meeting and go see Eve…"

A small smile came to his face as he realized exactly what would do the trick.

***

The tiny girl looked up from the toys she was playing with as he opened the door, her blue-eyes sparkling through the mop of blond curls that wouldn't stop falling into her face.

"Juwian!" Jumping to her feet, two-year-old Sheridan Crane pounded across the floor as fast as her unsteady toddler footsteps would carry her and leaped into her brother's awaiting arms.

Julian smiled as he squeezed her tightly into a warm hug. "Sheridan. How are Miss Bun-Bun and Mrs. Cricket doing this morning? No more tiffs, I hope."

Sheridan giggled and blew a tiny baby spit bubble at Julian's face.

Laughing softly, Julian wiped away the moistness on his cheek and carried her over to the rocking chair she had inherited from their great-great grandmother, crossing one leg over the other as he sat down. "So, you are in the mood to listen to me this morning…" Julian tickled Sheridan's tiny little tummy as he sat her down on his lap, causing her to squirm around in a fit of giggles.

Julian ran one hand softly through her silky blond curls. "You're so happy, Sheridan. So innocent and naďve…Promise me you'll always stay this way."

Sheridan began to pick at Julian's shoelace, a few moments of silence passing as Julian paused to collect his thoughts.

"We were going to run away together, did you know that?" Julian sighed quietly as he looked off into space. "Far, far away…somewhere where nobody could ever bother us again. She was going to be my island queen…"

Looking up from the activity she was concentrating so intently upon, Sheridan reached up and squeezed her pudgy little fingers tightly around Julian's nose.

"Sheridan…Sheri…that's not nice," he said in a nasally tone, unable to contain his laughter as he removed her hand from his face.

Sheridan opened her eyes wide and laughed. Frowning when Julian didn't join her, she turned her attention back to his shoe.

Julian looked up towards the ceiling. "It's all over now, Sheridan. To tell the truth, I don't think ever it began in the first place. I'm a Crane. She's a commoner…I was such a fool to ever think it could ever truly work." Julian felt his heart grow heavy. "She wants to be a doctor, did you know that? I never knew that about her, Sheridan. I never even bothered to try to find out about her hopes and dreams…In some ways, it's as if I ever knew her at all…I have so much to make up for…so much to learn…"

Frustrated when she couldn't untie Julian's shoelace, Sheridan began yanking at his heel.

"If I had let her take the fall for this," he continued, still lost in his own thoughts, "her entire life would have been ruined…"

Sheridan squealed in delight as she finally managed to free Julian's shoe from his foot and flung it high into the air. Seeing the shocked expression on her brother's face only made her clap in delight at her own accomplishment.

Julian shook his head in amusement and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. "You don't understand. How could you? You're only two." Julian paused as he watched his sister give him a sad look, almost as if she did understand his pain, or at least knew somewhere in her heart that she would someday.

Julian leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "I can only pray that the man you fall in love with will be a much better man than me."

Sheridan looked up at Julian with her big blue eyes and laid her head to rest on his shoulder. Grabbing his pinky in her tight little fist, she smiled when his head tilted down to rest upon hers.

"You do understand me, don't you?"

**2001**

Julian took one last sip of his brandy and placed it down on his desk.

Sheridan. She had been his only ally that day. The only one he ever told what really had happened. Eve had been so drugged up she never could quite remember what had happened in the morning, and, like the police, he had gone on and let her believe that he had been the one driving. For her to learn differently now…it would utterly destroy the entire life she had worked so hard to build for herself.

He had spent years keeping her secret, and no matter how she felt about him now, he would never give it away.

The Eve he saw standing only feet away from his eyes today held only a shadow on the free spirit that she used to be. Instead, she had found family, TC, an inner peace that Julian had never had. Eve's life was as close as one could come to perfect, and Julian would never be able to begrudge her that. After all he had hurt her in the past, she deserved to live with that kind of happiness. That kind of freedom.

Freedom that he, as a Crane, would never know.

"I'm going to kill Julian Crane, Eve!" Julian heard TC bellow for the umpteenth time that evening. "That bastard ruined my life, and, one of these days, I'm going to make him pay!"

"If only you knew, TC…" Julian said quietly, shaking his head. "If only you knew..."

Julian brought his hand to his lips and then placed it against the window, pausing for a moment to mourn what could have been.

"Goodbye, sweet Eve…"

Hanging his head, Julian gave Eve once last look and headed out the door.

Right now, there was a certain matter of an imposter of which he had to rid himself. He knew there would be consequences later, but like that fateful night all those years ago, he had decided to live in the moment and face the music later.

No doubt Alistair would disown him.

But at least he could make things right.

At least he could give another Crane the freedom he had never had.