One Life to Live Update for Thursday, 1-Sep-2005

John gets on the phone and tells the prison warden that he needs to talk to the “John Doe” prisoner who was formerly known as Christian Vega. But the warden tells John he cannot let him do that. The guy in question is in solitary. He went berserk when he heard about Natalie Vega being kidnapped and was in lockdown for a long time. He reminds John that the guy is a convicted prisoner and he cannot let him see the guy.

When Tess is with Nash, ready to help him with his winery, a guy comes by and asks why she stole his sign for his wine business. She discovers that this guy is the owner of the house that Nash hopes to buy. And he tells her that he can have them in jail for trespassing. Knowing only what Tess knows, she tells him there must be a way they can “work something out”. And right then, Nash enters and demands to know what she is doing. He settles his “differences” with the guy but tells Tess that he could see everything he needed to see when he walked through the door and knows she will never change.

Evangeline tells Antonio that he needs to do what the courts and family services want if he ever expects to get custody rights to Jamie and she tells him they don’t have any more time. She informs him that they moved the custody hearing up because the judge wants Jamie in a stable home before school starts. And she tells him that when he only gets a few hours a week with her, it doesn’t look too good to family services when he doesn’t even show up. He tells her he had something very important to do in finding Jessica because she is a positive influence in his child’s life. But Evangeline tells him that is only his opinion. RJ and Lindsay are looking like much more stable parents to Jamie than he is. He asks her if there is anything wrong with attempting to find Jessica when RJ is also living with his girlfriend. But She tells him that Lindsay is here and developing a relationship with Jamie. Jessica is not. He asks her if she is implying that he gives up on Jessica in order to get Jamie back. She tells him she does not want to be judgmental. But she would not be doing her job and helping her client if she does not tell him the reality that he has a difficult case to win. He tells her that he knows all about RJ’s dirty deals and it’s just a matter of time before he will get caught. She tells him that the courts see RJ as a stable parent and he, on the other hand, does not look that way. His chasing after Jessica is something that RJ can very effectively use against him in order to take Jamie from him. She tells him right now he must make a choice between Jessica and Jamie. He cannot fight for both. Maybe later. But not now. And she tells him that she’s observed that he might have already made his choice.

Right then, Rex goes to see Lindsay and asks if it’s such a good idea for her to be “playing mommy” to Jamie so soon after Jen has died. He tells her she must realize that all the tea parties and fun times with Jamie will not make the loss of Jen go away. He notices that she is selling a lot of art that is Christian Vega’s. She explains to him that when an artist dies, the collectors want their work. She also remembers that since Natalie is his widow, she cannot legally sell the art without authorization from Natalie. She asks if he had any reason for coming over besides pointing out her inadequacies as a parent. He tells her that is not his intent for being there. But he knows all about RJ’s dirty deals. He is helping Antonio get custody of Jamie, right? She tells him all about how she’s bonding with Jamie and how it’s helping her to get over the pain of losing Jen. She tells him she could also bond with Jen when she was with Jamie. And at that point, he realizes that maybe he should let up on his efforts to prevent RJ and ALSO Lindsay from having custody of Jamie. He then gives her the “evidence” that was found at the crime scene after Jen’s death. It’s a necklace that Jen was going to give to Lindsay as a mother’s day gift, but never got a chance to.

Natalie goes to see Roxie and asks if she can let her into John’s room so she can surprise him. Right then, Layla is uncovering secret information in John’s room. When she hears their voices, she hides. Roxie can tell that she smell’s women’s perfume in John’s room. Layla enters the hallway and Roxie asks who she is and tells her she does not want her loitering in the hall without a reason to be there. So, Layla knocks on the door to John’s room. Natalie answers and asks if she can help her. Layla addresses Natalie. Natalie asks her how she knows her name. Layla reveals to Natalie that she knows all about her. She knows that Natalie ruined her sister’s life. Natalie tells Layla that she’s never done anything to Evangeline. They just both fell in love with the same man and he chose her over Evangeline. She didn’t do anything wrong. She then concludes that Layla had no way of knowing she would be there since this is John’s room. And she asks Layla why she is really there. Layla tells Natalie she know all about her “drama” Natalie tells her she is a condescending little bitch to come in here and judge her without even giving her name. Remembering that she’s gotten the goods on John in regard to Christian, and how this can ruin his relationship with Natalie, Layla tells her her name is Layla, difficult to say and impossible to forget.

Tess defends herself to Nash telling him that that guy had blood in his eyes and was ready to hurt him. And she tells him he needs to grow up and get over his jealousy and insecurity. He reminds her that she has run away from her life and is asking him to take her away. But she tells him that without her, he’d be stuck in his dump where he was living before. He tells her that he knows her MO about wanting to be so hot to any guy. She tells him that the very reason why she left her restrictive environment and worthless, helpless life in the first place was to get away from this kind of attitude. But he reminds her if she ever expects to have faith in him, she must first have faith in herself and he wonders when or if that will ever happen. She tells him that maybe it’s not worth his time to stick around and find out.

John envisions wrestling with Christian Vega and wanting to hurt him. The guy then knocks John down and he sees his deceased dad. He’s obviously chasing demons. And he hears his dad asking him who he really wants to go after. John then realizes that his “opponent” was a stranger and apologizes if he hurt him. But again he sees his dad, asking him why he’s lying about Christian being dead. His dad tells him that Natalie has the right to know that her husband is alive. John asks why he is there right now when he died so many years ago and left him alone. John’s dad tells him he knows that John has ulterior motives for letting Natalie believe that Christian is dead.