It was a ploy to get you to take the pills
Nikolas: Here, this — come on, this is ridiculous.
Claudia: You’re the one who fell off your horse.
Nikolas: You’re no better than I am.
Claudia: Ok, well — ok, easy. Leaving you there, Nikolas, really didn’t seem like an option.
Nikolas: You could’ve opened that knife wound. You know how mad I would’ve been after all I did to help you?
Claudia: Well, you should’ve thought of that before you went and tried to kill yourself.
Claudia: You know, where I come from, when a man wants to off himself, generally, he’ll just wrap his teeth around a .45 and go out with a bang, you know, literally. Ok.
[Nikolas gasps]
Claudia: Not so good?
Nikolas: No.
Claudia: Ok. Women are different, of course, you know. Women will take a handful of sleeping pills and slide under a hot bath –
Nikolas: I wasn’t trying to kill myself, ok?
Claudia: Really?
Nikolas: Really.
Claudia: That’s not what you said when I found you lying on the ground out there.
Nikolas: What — what were you doing wandering out in the woods anyway?
Claudia: Your trusty manservant saw a light on in the stables. He has his concerns, Nikolas.
Nikolas: Alfred knows that I’ve been riding since I could walk.
Claudia: Well, that may be, but you’ve only had a death wish since your fiancee died.
Nikolas: Did he tell you that?
Claudia: Come on. A guy like Jeeves starts to blend into the walls after a while. But he knows everything –
Nikolas: Did –
Claudia: Because he sees everything.
Nikolas: Did Alfred tell you i had a death wish?
Claudia: Why else would you be riding your horse in the middle of the night right after you had brain surgery?
Nikolas: Look, if I really wanted to die, I just wouldn’t have had the brain surgery and let the tumor kill me so I could be with Emily.
Nikolas: I have a son who depends on me.
Claudia: You made it sound like a viable option. That’s all I’m saying.
Nikolas: I don expect you to understand –
Claudia: Well, good. Ok, that’s sweet. Take a deep breath — ready?
Nikolas: No, I don’t want to.
Claudia: Come on, I want to see if you have any internal injuries. Take deep breath — ready?
[Nikolas breathes heavily]
Claudia: Oh, god, you know what? Obviously — Nikolas, you’re obviously in pain. I think it’s your ribs. You seem to be breathing ok to me.
Nikolas: I wouldn’t — i wouldn’t kill myself. I’m not that selfish.
Claudia: Ok! I take it back! You are not actively suicidal. But you’re going to take all the chances and you’re going to walk on the edge because, hey, there’s no downside if you die in an accident, right? You don’t have to miss your fiancee and –
Nikolas: Oh.
Claudia: And you don’t have to have a son who grows up –
Nikolas: Ok –
Claudia: Thinking that his father didn’t love him enough –
Nikolas: I get the point.
Claudia: To live for him.
Nikolas: I get the point. You think I’m a coward.
Claudia: No, I don’t think that. I don’t. Look, after everything you told me about Emily, what you guys had, I get it. I get why you wouldn’t want to live without her.
Claudia: All right, easy. You know, you could be a lot more messed up than you — either of us realize. Maybe I should call the hospital and have them medevac a helicopter out here just –
Nikolas: No, no.
Claudia: Come on, I’ll tell them their biggest benefactor injured his check-writing hand and they’ll be here in two seconds.
Nikolas: I know too — too many people at that hospital. If they find out how I got hurt, they’ll just jump to the same conclusions you are. I don’t want people there worrying about me.
Claudia: Really?
Nikolas: Yeah.
Claudia: Even nurse Nadine?
Nikolas: Look, nurse Nadine probably saved my life by pushing me to have this surgery. And she also put up with a lot from me in the process. I’m grateful for her.
Claudia: That girl wants a lot more than a “thank you.” Trust me.
Nikolas: What — what do you mean? I care about her — what do –
Claudia: Good, you should ask her out. You should make all her dreams come true.
Nikolas: Stop — stop. I wouldn’t be dishonest with her and make her think that we could ever have anything more than just a friendship.
Claudia: Well, how do you know you can’t if you never…
Nikolas: Because I’m still in love with Emily, and I always will be.
Claudia: I got you some fresh water. I’m going to give you one of those pills that you’ve been giving me. I mean, they’re yours anyway.
Nikolas: The doctor prescribed me those after the surgery. I’ve been trying not to take them.
Claudia: Why? What are you, Russian? You enjoy pain?
Nikolas: Yes, actually, I am Russian. I just like to keep a clear head.
Claudia: Oh. Ok, well, listen. I need you to ta these pills, ok? And it’s really — you need to take the pills, nikolas. It’s the least you can do for me. You’re kind of — you’re ruining the whole troubled prince galloping through the moors thing that you got going on, ok? Come on, take the pills, quick, before you destroy every woman’s childhood fantasy. Please take the pills. I’ll take some with you.
[Nikolas grunts]
Claudia: Need some help there?
Nikolas: Yeah, thanks.
Claudia: That’s good.
Nikolas: I thought you didn’t have any childhood fantasies.
Claudia: I didn’t. It was a ploy to get you to take the pills.
Nikolas: Oh. So tell me –
Claudia: Hmm?
Nikolas: Miss Claudia…
Nikolas: Why are you going through so much trouble to help me? I mean… I know your big secret. You arranged to have Sonny Corinthos shot, but his son ended up in a permanent coma because of it. When I was lying out there in the woods, you could have just stepped on me and kept on walking, but you didn’t.
Claudia: Maybe I want to make sure you don’t get up. Once those painkillers kick in, it wouldn’t take much to put a pillow over your head and smother you. How would you like that? Go to sleep, you wake up with Emily?
Nikolas: I don’t think you’d smother me in my sleep.
Claudia: Don’t overestimate my gratitude.
Nikolas: The entire staff knows you’re here. You’d never get away with it.
Claudia: Yeah? I like that. That’s — that’s really sweet. I mean, you don’t — you don’t believe in my compassion or my humanity, but you believe in my sense of self-survival, huh?
Nikolas: I’ll tell you what i think.
Claudia: You all right?
Nikolas: I think there’s a lot more to you than just greed and ambition. Someone hurt you really bad, didn’t they? Didn’t they? Yeah, they did.
Claudia: You got it wrong. It’s those painkillers talking. Come on, you’re the one who was hurt, Nikolas. You’re the one who just lost the love of his life, and even with everything you were dealing with, you found it in your heart to care for me, to take care of me, show me respect and kindness.
Nikolas: That’s Emily, the part of her that’s inside me that I’m afraid of losing.
[Nikolas groans]
Nikolas: I can’t see her face anymore.
Nikolas: I can’t touch her. I can’t hold her anymore.
Nikolas: Hey.
Nikolas: I thought you –
Claudia: Oh.
Nikolas: That’s the worst part, you know. I reach out to her… thinking she’s back.
Nikolas: And then I realize all over again that she’s gone.
Nikolas: I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.
Claudia: For what?
