Hey guys! Striving to keep on writing, I want to post something bi-weekly (but of course "All the Pain" will continue). I got in a weird Easter spirit over the weekend, so here's this lil' effort…lol.

April 3, 1999

Even though it was a day of glory, Olivia associated Easter with being forced to wear terrible frocks. It was never her favorite holiday, and that damper carried over to when the children were young. Santa Claus was a trusted figure, but Sean and Caitlin asked far too many questions about the generous bunny.

Now, with Gregory stopping at nothing get full custody of Trey, she guiltily prayed for an Easter miracle.

She stood in front of the mirror in her room at Bette's condo. She raised the straps of her dark green bathing suit over her shoulders. She knew she was softer all over since Trey's birth, but there was no time for such thoughts now. Her curves represented the child at the center of Cole's melancholy, and he would be powerless to that.

He needed her, whether he admitted it or not. His life was going supernova as he wore the mask of a bright star. His recent three-ways with alcohol and self-loathing were all too familiar to her. She could get what she needed and he could get what he needed. She knew, deep down, that their affair had been the first stone in her own road to recovery.

He luxuriated in the Jacuzzi's jetting water, leaning back as he tipped the bottle of raspberry vodka to his lips. The SoCal sky was full of stars in the spring, and he always felt like he could pluck them out and link them around the delicate skin of a woman's wrist. It was such a foolish Deschanel thing, really.

In the last few weeks, his whole life had come crashing down. Trey was Olivia and Gregory's, passed off as his. Caitlin had found out about his affair with Olivia. Cole was out on the street as Caitlin and Gregory devised a legal strategy to keep the two of them out of Trey's life for good.

So, Bette had graciously let Cole crash at her place.

Since he'd been drinking a lot, crash was pretty literal.

Bette came out of the sliding glass door, glancing over him with folded arms. "One of my ex-husbands died in that hot tub, you know."

Cole continued to nurse from his vodka bottle. "Cool. Sounds like a good way to go."

"Oy-yoi. Honey, if anyone had ever told me I'd have a strapping young stud living here, I would've praised the heavens. Unfortunately, I know what a slob you are now, and the thrill is B.B King caliber gone."

"'K…I'll be better about that. I can't exactly mess this up, 'cause I have no other place to go."

"You have plenty of places to end up, sweetie, à la gutters. That's what worries me. And Olivia, oh, Mylanta. She's pacing the floor over you lately. I saw her putting a palm cross on your picture."

He was silent. His grandmother had always said that blessed objects weren't supposed to be talismans, but Olivia's sentiment kneaded his heart flat.

"Do you know what makes me sad about our infamous roll in the hay being a lie, Tiger? The fact that you are, in fact, a good man. This dead bunny floating in the Jacuzzi isn't you."

"Well, Caitz definitely thinks so."

"Listen, Dimples. You dry off and go to bed. I don't want Livvie or Kitten to see you like this. You've got a big day tomorrow, helping me with Easter. Don't think you're getting out of an-y-thing. I'm gonna have you marmalading the pork, making centerpieces, sculpting the butter into a lamb, you name it." She dipped her sparkly hand into a huge bag of Cadbury Mini-Eggs.

"Those are mine!"

"These? Olivia donated them to the uh, fertility clinic, they're classified, bye." She disappeared into the house.

A few minutes later, Olivia appeared from the sliding door in a robe. Her berry eyes covered him. "Oh, crud. I didn't know anyone else was…?"

"I was just about to go inside," he lied. He would've stayed put if Big Al Kennedy was decomposing beside him.

"Cole…we needn't walk on eggshells. I know it's been tense around here, but we're adults."

She removed the robe and let the silk billow down to the concrete patio. The intoxication in his eyes made his silent admiration fully evident. She climbed in, one pale, freckled thigh at a time. Her hair was up and a few loose tendrils floated blissfully in the steam around her.

He sank lower, knowing he deserved every bit of this California water torture.

"God, it's perfect," she sighed, closing her eyes and resting the nape of her neck on the tub edge. Her breasts grazed the surface.

"Yeah," he said lazily. "I - Olivia, this…this is all Gregory would need to slam us in court, he could have someone following you. Some like, photo sniper could be taking pictures of us right now."

Her foot brushed against his leg as she slipped lower. "Paranoid much? How much have you had?"

"Enough to be hating life when Bette makes me peel potatoes in the morning."

"This is quite the role reversal, innit? Me, the sober one."

He was painfully lucid about certain things, as his eyes traced her silhouette. "It's hard to resist the way booze turns down that tape in my head of 'why can't Trey be mine?"

"Sometimes our relentless thoughts are instincts, and drowning them goes against your whole being. Have you ever thought of that?"

She had never known him to exhibit shame on his face. "Olivia, I'm sorry. Being drunk is so disrespectful to you."

"Shh. Just relax, will you? Pretend you're in a hot spring in Greece or something."

"What, the movie…with Olivia Newton St. John?"

"In Greece the country, dear. With Olivia me. And none of your aliases."

"Oh. Oh. I'm sorry."

"Stop apologising! Let's just enjoy the Easter season."

"And do what? Think of all the fun stuff with Trey that we're missing?"

"Cole, he's one year old. He's going to scream on a horrifying rabbit's lap and go to bed. I've never cared for the meaningless photo op portion of parenting. To me, the little, everyday moments mean so much more, not holidays. You and I have never shared a holiday, but we've had many moments."

He smiled a little. "...Many. After a while they all kinda lump together..."

"Into a feeling."

"Heart in my throat like I'm pulling a ripcord," he offered drowsily, swigging vodka as his eyes were constant on her.

"Being lost...but safe."

"Yeah."

"That's why I want to give you this." He never expected her to pull a ring out of the cup of her bathing suit.

He wondered just how drunk he was. She put the masculine gold band in his palm, and closed his fingers around it. "I had it made for you, out of my emerald pendant. You know…the pendant."

A beveled design was etched into the gold, and pieces of the emerald center were encrusted throughout. "It's beautiful…but why? Why a reminder of something so…"

"It's a life ring. Don't be like me. Don't spiral downward. Think of that night as my rebirth, and find your own."

Her foot rested on his thigh, edging inward. He slipped the ring on his right hand as his head eased back slowly as he moaned a breath that caught in his throat. "Oliv-"

"A full circle, isn't it…me enticing you with the very same jewelry? Promise me you'll stop drinking."

Her gambit was made. She took one long, quick stroke across the tub, straddling his lap. "…right now I'm promising myself not to wake up," he breathed.

"Promise," she whispered in his ear, as her warm mouth claimed his neck. She didn't have long to tease this sensitive skin until he met her lips with two years worth of tension. The vodka broke down every wall as he growled into her mouth, stroking tongue with desperate tongue, signing his oath. Something always made her presence feel temporary, made him cup her flesh hard like she'd disappear. He manhandled her bathing suit straps down and suckled her slick breasts. She melted against the tub wall, thrusting her nipple into his persistent mouth. The more he thought of the months she'd spent pretending Trey wasn't hers, the more he wanted deny his own needs. He sank below the steamy surface, kissing, biting, exhaling violently on her sensitive spots. He didn't want to be human anymore, just a wave crashing against her body.

She pulled him up into her waiting kiss, as breathless as he was. "Upstairs."

They shivered as they climbed out, until he swooped her into a threshold-carrying position in his arms. They knew they had to dry themselves off or face Bette's wrath. There was no time. "Garage," Olivia countered her own offer.

A worn mattress lay on the cement floor and they sank into its soft fabric, tangled together. He cursed softly as his fingertips pulled aside her bathing suit and found her as ready as if he'd obliged her much longer. She didn't even peel his swim trunks all the way off. Their union was hot and fast, the spring air so frigid in comparison to their coupling. Her climax bit into his muscular shoulder as he exhaled the last of his energy, as if it were the last of his very essence, into her hair.

When Cole fell deeply asleep, she took a small pair of scissors and snipped an inconspicuous lock of hair that dusted his neck.

All she had wanted once was for Trey to be Gregory's, but she never trusted his privately obtained paternity results.

The next day, everyone enjoyed the Easter spread. Bette couldn't help noticing Cole and Olivia's matching San Pellegrino bubbling in their glasses.

"Mom, you seem awfully cheery, considering what Dad's pulling lately," Sean said.

"That's the great Paschal mystery I'm trying to figure out myself," Bette sighed.

"I have a feeling the custody case will be resolved rather quickly," Olivia said between bites, the DNA sample ready to be sent to the lab first thing in the morning. She smiled at Cole, her eyes tracing his ring. As she had always been told, an emerald was a protection charm that brought to the conscious mind what was unconsciously known.

THE END