After the dark of sadness comes the glory of happiness!

Taylor strikes back!

Over the next few weeks Taylor and Ridge settled back in LA completely. They were both busy with their work, but made sure to spend enough time together. Like she had told Stephanie Taylor offered the colleague, who had run her practice during her absence, a partnership. This gave her more space for her family and her charity work. Taylor had found a new intriguing project. At the children's medical unit of the General Hospital was a daycare for siblings, then often parents were forced to bring their other children with them to the hospital. One or two afternoons a week, depending on her schedule, Taylor volunteered at the daycare. She loved the time with the children. Along, she supported the families, offered talks to the parents and paid visits to the little patients.

Ridge also delegated some of his duties to free up his time. In addition, they both worked at home as often as possible. They had set up a new large office, where each had their workspace, just like in San Francisco. They enjoyed spending their time together this way. Another change in the house was their master bedroom. They had gotten rid of all the old furniture and given the room a total new look. They thought the fresh start should be visually apparent as well. Also both of them had their own personal motivation for this step. Taylor no longer wanted to be reminded of all the depressive hours she had spent in the old room. Ridge was much more comfortable with the new room, now he really had the feeling it was his room too. Before, he had felt like kind of an intruder, now he felt at home.

For Thomas and Steffy, it was still a miracle to see their parents so happily united. They loved the new spirit in the house and they found it wonderful to be spoiled by their mother again. In the evenings, they often all sat together, played games, watched movies, or just talked about anything. It was exactly the family life they both always dreamed about. Plus now since their parents had each other and they didn't have to worry about them any longer, they were free to concentrate on their own life.

There was only one small obstacle; Brooke. Still she never let out an opportunity to get close to Ridge and throw herself on him, no matter how forcefully he asked her to drop her advances. He tried to reason with her, but Brooke just laughed every time and told him to stop pretending already. She was convinced Ridge was still in love with her and she would eventually win him back. After all, she had always managed it so far. Thomas and Steffy were more than pissed off by her behavior and it cost them a lot of effort to hold back and control themself. In addition, everyone in the company whispered about the Taylor/Ridge/Brooke triangle. Some gossiped about if and when Brooke would succeed in getting Ridge back into her clutches.

Taylor took the situation much harder than she wanted. She was trying everything to keep her composure. She knew there was no reason for her to worry. Ridge proved to her every day how much he loved her and she had no reason at all to mistrust or blame him. He didn't give her the slightest hint to believe Brooke's advances would make an impression on him in any way. Still she struggled with the fact that everyday Brooke came up with a new idea to steal Ridge away from her and there was nothing she could do about it. But she tried to remain calm. No way was she going to give Brooke too much power over her. The days of Brooke being an ongoing issue in her marriage were over. Instead she used any chance she got to demonstrate to Brooke she was now the woman on Ridge's side. In fact, none of Brooke's efforts had worked so far.

One day she had appeared at Taylor's. With a sweet innocent smile, she explained.

"Ridge asked me to look over these papers and since I was just in the neighborhood, I thought it's easier to drop them off here quickly." Taylor accepted the documents and as she was about to place them on Ridge's desk, a small letter fell out. It was a handwritten note from Brooke. She thanked him for a wonderful night and hoped for a rerun very soon. With lipstick, she had added a kiss mouth. Taylor glanced suspiciously at the note and pondered. Ridge had spent every night at home lately except for one night a few days ago. He had been out with some Highschool friends, who all had happened to be in town. At least that's what he told her. Taylor shook her head.