Author's Note: I was inspired to write this after listening to Janet(Ms. Jackson if you're nasty) while reading spoilers, and decided to try to write. I don't own did create any of these characters.

The Point of It All

Part 1
She couldn't believe it. She, Steffy Forrester-Spencer, had slept with Bill Spencer, her father-in-law. 'Finally,' a soft voice in her mind whispered. She jolted upright in bed at the unexpected voice.

Steffy scrubbed her hands over her face as the insanity of the last few days threatened to overwhelm her: Bill moving forward with his plan to demolish Spectra Fashions but offering to relocate them as a compromise… Liam staging a sit-in unwilling to compromise his much-vaunted principles even a little… Bill thinking he scared everyone out of the building, but unwitting blowing it up with Liam & Sally inside because they'd run back in at the last minute… risking her life going into the collapsing building with Bill to save them… Liam's thankfully brief stay in the hospital… finally getting home only to deal with the tension between them… Liam's confession of sharing kisses with Sally while they were trapped… leaving devastated that she had been stupid enough to believe in him despite her every instinct warning her not to trust him… ending up at the guest house on her grandfather's property, where Bill had found her… Waking from hours in her father-in-law's arms… running home to confess to Liam only to find he had called Carter to renew their vows… running out once more overwhelmed & in shock… and finally driving straight to her brother's empty apartment. Her life had become a chaotic mess, so she had put her phone on Airplane mode, and turned off her brain, crashing in her brother's bed blissfully alone.

But it was a new day, and now that she was awake she would need to deal with her life. She only wished she knew exactly where to go from here. 'You know where you really want to be,' the voice spoke up again. 'You always have.'

"Oh, really," she huffed, slipping out of the bed and reaching into the closet for one of her brother's remaining button-downs on her way to the bathroom. "Do tell."

Hearing her own voice echoing off the tiles, she stopped and stared at herself in the mirror. "What am I doing talking to myself? I really am losing it." And trying to ignore that superior, slightly mocking voice, she began stripping down for a much-needed shower. But she couldn't completely ignore that voice as it stated, 'You can ignore me, but it won't change the truth. And the truth is you have always wanted, always loved Bill more than anyone other than Phoebe.'

But Steffy was in for a surprise. While she was showering an unexpected visitor was letting themselves into Thomas's apartment. They came in and were shocked to hear the shower running and see a purse on the couch. Setting her bags beside it, she followed the sound of running water. She saw a phone on the bedside table and took a peek. "Steffy?" the woman murmured in confusion.

A moment later, the shower turned off. She set Steffy's phone aside and sat on the bed and waited.

Steffy exited the bathroom wearing her brother's shirt as she toweled her hair dry. The sound of a throat clearing was her only warning. Steffy whipped the towel down and gasped, "Mom?! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Taylor shot back with concern. "What are you doing here? Is something going on with Liam? Did he have to go back to the hospital?"

"No. No!" Steffy exclaimed. "Nothing like that. Everything is fine. Physically."

"Ok." Taylor watched her daughter carefully. "Explain."

"It's just been a really intense 48 hours," Steffy said. She hadn't exactly been keeping her troubles with Liam from her mom, but she hadn't been totally forthcoming either. "So what brings you to town?"

"You know your brother has been considering subletting, right?" Steffy nodded. "Well, since Sasha will be in town for the season, I just figured I would come through and hang out until she gets here. Besides, need to give her the keys." She paused. "Also, my daughter has been struggling with something and trying to downplay it so I won't worry."

"So Sasha's gonna be staying here for the season. That's great."

"Steffy!" Taylor demanded. "You know as well as I do that even though Thomas is pursuing a relationship with Caroline, he & Sasha have remained increasingly close friends. They FaceTime all of the time. I'm waiting for the calling telling me he and Caroline are going back to coparenting and he and Sasha are going to give it another try. It would have been easy for her to detour to New York to grab the keys. I'm here for you, Steffy. Talk to me. What has really been going on around here?"

"It—it's kind of a long story. It really started before Thomas moved to New York for Caroline & Douglas," Steffy began. "It all started with Sally Spectra coming to town."

"I assume you mean Dame Sally's niece."

"Yeah," she admitted. "I'm sure Thomas and I have both mentioned how she came to town gunning for me. And to be honest, I really didn't take her seriously."

"Until she stole those designs," Taylor added.

"Exactly," Steffy agreed. "But Liam talked me out of pressing charges because Bill had a hand in turning up the pressure."

"Pressure makes diamonds or dust," her mother interjected. "She chose to turn to theft instead of stepping up her game. No one can blame Bill for her actions. That's immature and shortsighted."

"That was my take, but Liam & Thomas got into my head, and I let her off to a degree." Steffy sighed. "I guess it was Liam's response that really got to me. And then Thomas got all tangled up in her. But Bill kept up the pressure on. And you know Bill."

"Oh, yeah."

"Eventually, even I ended up involved," Steffy admitted.

"You called Caroline, didn't you?"

Steffy hopped up and started pacing. "Thomas is too good for Sally. It was bad enough she fooled both him and Liam with her stupid martyr routine and had them blaming Bill like he was the bad guy when SHE robbed our family's business, but he was willing to invest a pretty significant chunk of his trust fund in her. I mean what about Douglas or any other kids he might someday have. He was completely blind for her. So I agreed with Bill and called Caroline. Unfortunately, Bill didn't trust that to be enough and he kept sabotaging Spectra."

"Sounds like him."

"He… he took it too far, and Liam snapped. He got Bill to confess on tape to some of his sabotage…"

"That's why Bill stepped down for a while?" Taylor asked. "Liam blackmailed him?"

"Pretty much." Steffy sighed, dropping beside her mom. "It spiraled from there. Liam became so determined to save Sally like he was on some insane crusade, worse than Thomas was. He betrayed his father over the… criminal who stole from my family's company. He gifted her the Spectra building and offered this insane no-interest loan."

"He did what?!"

"Mom, I tried to reason with him I did, but after Bill hit him for stealing the CEO seat from him, he wasn't hearing me. It didn't matter that he was rescuing my rival, or doing potentially irreparable damage to his relationship with his father. I started talking to Bill to mediate the situation. You know Bill, Mom, and he doesn't take things lying down. I knew he would get rid of the recording and take back his place as CEO eventually, and I knew if I didn't get through to Bill before he did, things would only escalate once he did."

"I'm assuming it helped," Taylor urged gripping her daughter's hand.

"For a while," the younger woman admitted. "I made Bill see that he went too far, but he didn't need to take it any further. After he destroyed the recording, Bill could have retaliated. He chose not to because of me—I mean, because I got through to him about his relationship with Liam."

"Mmhmm. Where was Brooke through all of this?"

"She walked away from their marriage over it. Because of Bill hitting Liam and everything else, she decided that she felt personally betrayed and didn't want a life with him anymore."

"How long until the divorce is final?" Taylor quipped. "And how long after before she and your dad plan to remarry?"

"You know her so well," Steffy chuckled, rolling her eyes. "Both of them really. I don't know. Bill is—he's giving up on it. He tried to get through to her, but after the building implosion…" Steffy shrugged.

"How did that even happen?" Taylor asked.

A slight smirk slipped free unbeknownst to Steffy. "Bill may have been more open to compromise, but he was not gonna let Liam get away with handing Spectra a $50M property AND a huge loan to boot."

"I still can't believe Liam would be so… reckless with his family's legacy," Taylor admitted shaking her head. "I mean, what could he have been thinking? Especially given your relationship with Sally's niece."

"That it was the right thing to do considering everything Bill had done to sabotage Sally," Steffy said, her face falling. "That not even our marriage or his family mattered more than his principles. At least that's what he told me."

Taylor was floored. "He—he said that?"

"Among other things." Steffy scrubbed her hands over her face and back through her hair. "But like I said, I got Bill past his initial anger. I made him see that his relationship with Liam meant more than that. He promised to be more open to compromise, and Liam promised never to take his family—any of us—for granted again."

"Until he did."

"Until he did." Steffy forced herself up off the bed. "I'm thirsty. I could use some water. You want anything?"

"Steffy," Taylor began.

"I'm done trying to avoid you, Mom," she cut in. "Not that I could in this one-bedroom apartment. I just need some water."

"Then I'll come with you," her mother replied, rising with her. "I'll see if any of my groceries are still usable for making you breakfast while we talk."

"You don't have to," Steffy said near the door.

Taylor wrapped an arm around her little girl. "I know. I want to."