Mercy

Staring at the picture on her desk, Nikki sighs thinking about how her life had changed over the last three years. It all started with that phone call to Leland. She wanted to apologize for not telling him everything, but as with most things, it didn't turn out the way she had hoped.

Three Years Ago:

"Hey, its me...I really didn't want to talk to your voice mail, but since you wont answer I guess I will." Nikki says with a sigh. "I just wanted to apologize for what happened the other day, I shouldn't have gotten in the middle of things... Look - Just call me, please. I need to explain things to you that shouldn't be said over the phone." she says then hangs up, more frustrated than she had been since it happened.

Her phone rang a moment later, making her jump. She flipped it open without looking to see who was calling.

"Hello" she says quickly, expecting Leland's voice. "Oh, its you." she says sadly, as she hears Duane Lee's voice.

"Gee, thanks." he says laughing. "I just wanted to know if you had heard from Leland. Its been a week... I told him to call you." he explains.

Nikki sighs, "No. He wont answer my calls... I give up. If he wants to talk to me, he'll call." she tells him, then says her goodbyes. She sits the phone down, then picks it back up, deciding to call her father. That phone call lands her in the position she's in today.

Present Day:

"Miss. Murdock, you have a visitor." The receptionist tells her over the speaker.

"Thank you Kelly, send them in please." she says politely. Wondering who might be by to visit. She looks up as the door opens, sitting her pen down. "Hi sweetie." she says as her fiance walks through her office door.

He doesn't acknowledge her, he only closes the door and sits down on the other side of her desk. "I don't know why I have to announced every time I come to your office." he says rolling his eyes.

They had been dating the past two years and just recently engaged the past month. Nikki forced a smile as she thought about how he had been the first person she found when Leland turned a cold shoulder to her. It definitely wasn't the way she intended her life to be, but it was just that - her life.

Nikki shrugs her shoulders, " I don't know... you know how my father is." she says tapping her pen on her desk top.

"Whats on your mind today? You look vexed." he says, coming to stand behind her to massage her shoulders. Nikki takes the opportunity to roll her eyes, 'who uses the word Vexed?' she thinks to herself. "I am vexed." she says, biting her lip to keep from laughing.

"Ive been couped up in this office and I cant stand it!" she says shrugging his hands off her shoulders.

He sighs, rolling his eyes. "This is not the time to be taking vacations or doing anything silly Nicole. Our profit margin is down, you need to be focused on that." He says picking up the picture she had been staring at earlier. It was the one Duane Lee had taken of her, Leland and Bailee on their last trip to Colorado. "I think its time to get rid of this. You're engaged now and that - " he says, flipping the picture over, "was your old life, this is your new life." he says gesturing around her office before he walks out, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

In many ways he was right, she thinks to herself, turning the picture right side up; this was her new life now. She had to put the old one behind her.

She picks up her pen, trying her best to focusing on the annual budget. She glances once more at the picture, "Ive sold my soul to the devil." she says, out loud to herself, before getting back to her work.

"Kelly, take messages for me please, I'm going out for a little while." she says to the receptionist. Nikki had been working for hours, she had finally had enough. "Ive got to get out of here." she tells herself, walking out of the office building. She breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped onto the sidewalk in downtown Kona. She had been living here for the past two years, and she loved it.

She took her time browsing through each shop, trying on a dress, buying a pair of jeans, a pair of high heels, a new purse. There was a time in her life when things were exciting; a time when she might have to fly out to the mainland on spur of the moment notice. Those days were exciting, she smiles thinking to herself. But sadly, those days were gone.

Before she moved here she tried in vain to contact Leland several times before accepting her fathers job offer, which was nothing more than an unspoken apology. Steven Murdock never apologized for anything, slapping his daughter had been no exception.

Nikki paid for her last purchase and left the store, feeling no better than she had been when she was couped up in the office; shopping did nothing for her. "Nothing but a waste of money." she mutters to herself.

"Excuse me." a shorter blonde says, side stepping Nikki.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Nikki says, apologizing. The other woman was walking with a toddler. Something about her felt very familiar to Nikki, but she shakes the thought away and gets into her car.

That night Nikki arrived home to find a candle lit dinner waiting on her. She smiles seeing her fiance' coming out of the kitchen holding a pan of lasagna, her favorite food. "This looks nice. Thank you." she says sweetly. He kisses her on the cheek, taking her bags from her, then pulls out a chair for her to sit in.

"Whats the occasion? she asks picking up her fork to take a bite.

"No occasion, cant a guy cook for his future wife?" he says laughing.

Nikki's mind drifts back to a time when she heard someone else call her his future wife. "Its lovely, but not like you, whats really going on?" she says raising an eyebrow.

He sighs, sitting his glass down. "Theres something I want to tell you, and I know you wont like it." he says taking her hand in his.

"Go on..." she urges him.

"I'm moving the corporate headquarters to Chicago." he tells her. Her eyes grow wide, her face showing the shock she felt inside. "Absolutely not!." she says through her teeth.

"Honey...you really don't have a say in it anymore. You gave up that right when you sold your share of the company to me years ago. I'm the majority shareholder now."

"I'm your fiance, doesn't that count for something?" she asks him, as she throws her napkin down on the table.

He leans back in his chair, crossing his arms "Not when it comes to my business."

"Your business? What about my father, he started this business!" Nikki says, standing up from the table, she had suddenly lost her appetite. "You know what...just move the whole thing to Chicago, but I'm not moving with you!" she says walking away from him. A moment later the bedroom door slams shut. She throws herself down on the bed, these were the times she questioned her move to Kona and her future with James Scott.

Nikki and James did their best to avoid one another the rest of the night. The next morning at work Nikki tried to take him aside after a long meeting, but he was pulled away by her father.

When she walked back into her office she wasn't surprised to see a very large bouquet of flowers sitting on her desk. "Typical James." she says pulling the card off. James was and had always been a 'less talk, more action kind of guy', so flowers were his standard way of apologizing. She opened the card, expecting to see something along the lines of. "I'm sorry." or "I love you." but that wasn't what it said at all.

"Remember our promise?" she says out loud, wondering what that could mean. She quickly shoves the card in her desk drawer as James walks into her office.

"Where'd you get the flowers?" he asks, staring at them. "I..um...oh I picked them up on the way in this morning." she says lying to him. "Tulips are my favorite." she says glancing at the flowers.

"Hmm... tulips? Didn't know that." he says shrugging his shoulders.

She wanted to tell him that it was sad that they were engaged and he didn't even know that tulips were her favorite flower, but decided against saying anything. Sometimes that was easier.

"I just stopped by to apologize about last night. I should have told you earlier about the move." James says, trying to hug her.

She pushes him away. "You can apologize until your blue in the face. It wont change the facts." Nikki says back to him. "I cant even talk about this right now. I'll deal with it when I have to." she says as she storms out of her office. She walked quickly across the street to a coffee shop, not paying attention to what she was doing, she bumped into a someone.

"Sorry." he says very politely, picking up her cell phone that fell onto the sidewalk.

"No, its all my fault . I wasn't paying attention. Happens to me a lot actually... Thank you." she says as he holds out her phone to her.

"No problem" he says sweetly, putting the phone in her hand, the tattooed arm connected to that hand and that voice sounds a lot like, "Leland." she says softly, finally looking up at him.

"Oh my God..." he says in surprise. "Nikki... what are you doing in Kona?" he asks taking a step away from her.

"I live here now. Why didn't you call me back. Its been three years" she says suddenly. This was not how she pictured this scenario in her head.

"I was mad at you." he says honestly, looking away from her. "Its stupid, I know."

"You broke my heart, I thought we were friends."

"Friends don't lie to each other. " he says angrily.

"I didn't lie, I just chose not to tell you everything. That woman - " she says suddenly, thinking about the one she ran into on the street. " That woman... that was Stacy...and Bailee wasn't it?" she says, as it dawns on her. "I ran into her yesterday on the street."

"Really? Yeah, it probably was her. I uh...we got back together." he says quietly, scratching his head, still not able to look into Nikki's eyes.

"You what?" she says, not really believing what she was hearing. "Why would you do that after what she did to you?"

He sighs, crossing his arms, "Bailee needed a mother. She needed her own mother...Lets sit down." he says, guiding her to a nearby bench.

Nikki couldn't grasp this unbelievable turn of events. Seeing Leland, then finding out he was with the woman who abandoned his child at the hospital, was almost too much to take in. Of all the ways she thought this reunion might come to be, this was not the way she wanted it to happen.

"So...what have you been up to the past couple of years?" he asks, putting an arm behind her as they sit down.

Nikki closes her eyes for a moment, trying to calm her racing heart. "I started working for my father. It wasn't what I wanted, but he talked me into it in the end." she says sadly. She debated whether or not to tell him that she was engaged. That in its self made her question her own motives and her future with James...did she even want to marry him? Why had she agreed to marry him?

"What are you so deep in thought over?" Leland asks, leaning closer in to hear her. That same tingly feeling that she felt many years ago returned as his hand brushes against her arm.

"You always could read me." Nikki says smiling.

"Friends, remember?" he says returning the smile.

"Forgive me?" she asks him, hoping he still wanted to be friends.

He pulls her a little closer to him, wrapping his arm around her. "We've got a lot of catching up to do." he says looking down at her. "And the first thing I want to know is, why you didn't tell me you were fucking my brother?" he says with a twinkle in his eye.

He watches her for a moment, her mouth hanging open in shock. "Duane Lee never was one to keep a secret for too long." he says winking at her.