Through the Darkness, Chapter Five

CHAPTER 5

August, 2013

Blair was balancing a purse, an attaché case and a café mocha as she stepped out of the coffee shop and into someone walking in.  The bags fell to the floor and the coffee wound up on the poor customer’s shirt.  “Oh, I am so sorry.  I don’t have enough hands for all this…” she began when she finally looked up.  “Cordero Roberts, I see you’ve arrived.”

The businessman let out a hearty laugh.  “Not soon enough to get out of the way of Blair Cramer, though,” he said, charming as ever.  “Here, let me help you with that.”

“Oh, I got it all on your shirt,” she noticed.  “I am so sorry.”

“That’s all right.  You seem to be juggling a lot of stuff there,” Cord commented.

“Well, I kind of have a new job,” she began hesitantly.  “Todd is out of town on business.”

“Yeah, Viki told us when we got here yesterday,” he said.

“And it’s going to be for an extended time.  So, in his absence, he left me in charge of The Sun,” she explained.

“Really?  That’s a surprise,” Cord replied. 

“Well, I have done it before,” she answered, getting as bit defensive.  “And despite a lot of troubles we’ve had over the years, he’s always trusted me in matters of business.  And, there really is no one else.  Starr’s not in Llanview anymore and Jack’s too young, plus he’s in summer school now.”

Cord acknowledged Blair’s points.  “I can see his reasons.  I guess…from what I’ve been able to tell, you hit a load of rough spots with him.”

“When haven’t I?” 

She was about to continue that sentence when another voice piped up.  “Cord, did you get my latte yet?” Tina Lord Roberts asked before stopping short.  “Oh, Blair, you’re here.”  The redhead slid up next to her husband and took his arm possessively. 

Blair couldn’t help roll her eyes.  It had been years since she’d had any interest in Cord Roberts.  For a minute, Blair was tempted to assure Tina she wasn’t after her man, because she had her man back.  But she knew, telling Tina was akin to printing it on the front page of The Banner and that could expose the lot of them to too much danger.  Instead, Blair merely smiled.  “Yes, Tina, I haven’t left town, in oh, twenty years.”  Then, in a staged whisper, she added, “Unlike some.”

Tina’s eyes hadn’t left her until Cord spoke up.  “Blair here was just filling me in on the news that with Todd away, she’s in charge of his paper.”

Tina finally looked at Cord, her expression darkening.  “Why would my brother leave it to her?  I should get it!”

“He isn’t dead, Tina,” Blair hissed.  I hope to God he’s not, she thought briefly.  “He’s on an extended business trip and he wanted to make sure the paper is running smoothly.  And the last time I checked, you’ve never run any business, much less a newspaper!”

“Now, ladies,” Cord began.

“You know what, I’m running late.  Cord, it was lovely to see you,” Blair said, ignoring the other woman.  She got a few feet away, when she heard the couple bickering a bit. 

Her name was called out after they finished.  “Blair.”  It was, surprisingly, Tina who said her name.  “Viki was mentioning at breakfast this morning about seeing if you, Jack and Sam would like to come for dinner tonight.  She was going to call to invite you, since you are the mother of her two nephews but, since we ran into you here, I figured I’d ask.”

And again, the temptation to spill to Tina.  But as before, Blair kept the secret.  Turning towards her long-time nemesis, she smiled broadly.  “My sons and I would love to have dinner with the Lords of Llanfair.”  Without another word, she left.

 

Blair managed to get out of the office early and headed home.  She found Jack and Sam were playing video games in the living room.  “Get changed, where going over to Llanfair for dinner.”  Neither of the boys made a word of complaint as they scurried upstairs, but Dorian, who caught the end of the orders, asked, “You are having dinner with Queen Victoria?”

It felt like the only thing Blair had been doing all day was rolling her eyes; first at Tina, now at Dorian.  “She is the boys’ aunt and she hasn’t been spending as much time as she like with them,” Blair reasoned. 

“And you were invited too?”

“Yes, Dorian, if for no other reason than out of politeness.”

“And Viki is nothing, it not polite,” she said in a tone dripping with sarcasm.  By then, Jack and Sam were back downstairs and Blair corralled them into her car. 

They reached the front door of Llanfair and were greeted by Jessica.  “Blair, it’s great to see you!” the blonde said enthusiastically. 

“It’s great to see you.  I thought you were still in London?” Blair asked.

“Well, from what I heard from Natalie and Matthew, I thought Mom needed us here.  Having her grandkids here seems to have lifted her spirits, what with my dad and now, I heard Uncle Todd left town?” she asked.

Before Blair could answer, a male voice called to him.  “Oh, I see Sam’s here.  I’ll go up and tell Bree,” Brody Lovett said as he headed up the stairs.

Blair turned back to Jessica.  “Has something changed?” she asked, a glimmer in her eye.

Jessica smiled back.  “After Mom and Dad ran the DNA test on me and it confirmed that I was, in fact, Clint’s daughter, I thought I should just check with Ryder.  As he’s grown, I haven’t really seen anything of Bobby in him.  I had several tests run and they all agreed.  Brody is Ryder’s father,” she explained.  “I tracked him down in Africa last year to tell him and I said I’d stay in London for as long as he was with the SEALS.  He got discharged about two weeks ago.”  At that point, Brody came down behind Bree with Ryder in his arms.  “And we’re a family now.”

Blair gathered Todd’s niece in her arms.  “I am so happy you were able to get your guy back,” she said sincerely.

They parted and Jessica looked at Blair.  “I’m sure that somewhere down the line, you’ll get yours too.”  With that, she walked off.

A secretive smile flashed on Blair’s face.

Despite the presence of Tina, Blair enjoyed herself.  Natalie had arrived late and Liam and Ryder followed Sam and Bree around as the adults ate.  Blair and Cord reminisced about their shared past, filling Natalie in on the extent of their relationship.  The evening went along smoothly until Cord said, “Tomorrow, the seventy-two hour hold should be off and I’m going to the hospital to see what’s going on with Pa.” 

Blair had been witness to the disagreement Matthew and Natalie had with Viki and Bo right after Clint had been taken out.  She looked over and saw that Viki had the expression on her face as he had that night.  “Cord, your father…he’s changed.  I think he had a harder time dealing with Asa’s death than any of us wanted to admit.  He really is turning into Asa Jr.  Look at what he did to Natalie.”

Blair decided to try to derail any suspicion anyone at this table may have of her, and why she was there, when she added, “Not that he didn’t have some help from Todd.”

“Yeah, what went on with that anyway?” Jess asked.  “How did Todd find out about John anyway?”

Blair sighed dramatically as she said, “When he was up in Port Charles, I don’t know how, but he got his hands on a picture of John kissing another woman.  To get even with John, he sent the picture, knowing it would ruin his relationship with Natalie.”  She turned to the redheaded daughter.  “Natalie, I am so sorry that Todd put you and Liam through that.”

“Why are you apologizing for what Todd did?” she asked as she made a face.

“Before you got that picture, Todd…Todd asked me to marry him but I reject him.  I told him that when John arrested him, we were together and it ruined it for me.  Something was broken and I didn’t see it ever being fixed.  He took it as, us not getting back together was John’s fault.  So, he found the ammunition and he fired it.”

Natalie offered Blair a sympathetic smile.  “It’s still not your fault.”

“Speaking of Uncle Todd, where is he?  I know family dinners have never been his thing, but I heard he’s out of town,” Jessica asked.

“Yes, he is out of town,” Tina announced.  “And he left Blair in charge of The Sun.”

If Tina was thinking announcing that to those gathered would turn them against Blair, she was wrong.  “Good for you, Blair.  But won’t you be overloaded between that and Shelter?” Natalie asked.

Blair shook her head, saying with a smile, “No it’s in good hands.  Cutter and Rama seem to have the place under control.  If they need me, they know where to find me.”  Blair noticed the scowl on Nat’s face when she said Cutter’s name, but let it slide.

“Well, why don’t we move into the living room for coffee?”  Viki asked.  The family obliged and and were milling about the room from conversation to conversation.  Jack, however, was standing by the fireplace, looking at a picture.  Viki noticed him and went over.  “That’s your Aunt Meredith,” she explained simply.

“Yeah, I was talking to the man she was married to yesterday,” Jack replied.

“You went to talk to Larry?”

Jack nodded.  “I’ve been thinking about…Victor.  And I didn’t feel comfortable talking about him to you or Aunt Dorian.  But I saw the last name Wolek in his obituary and Mom told me she thought Dr. Wolek was a member of this family for a time, so I thought I could ask him about…”

   

Viki was truly touched by her nephew’s care, but she still said, “Jack, I came to grips with what my father did to me a long time ago.  So, I don’t want to to worry about me if you have any questions.”

Jack wasn’t sure that was entirely true.  But, he had a question he did want an answer to, and it wasn’t even about his grandfather.  “Does Todd know about…?”

Viki looked around at the family in the living room and then, took Jack’s hand, leading him out into the foyer.  She closed the doors behind them and turned to Jack.  Her manner was stiff and a little far-off.  She took a deep breath.  “Do you know about your parent’s second marriage?”

Jack thought for a minute.  He had, of course, seen the picture of his parents dancing in a shower of gold balloons.  He was sure he’d heard about the event at some point.  But he also thought Viki was dodging the question a bit so he nodded his head. 

“The night before, he came here to tell me and Tina and Tina’s children that he and your mother were going to be remarried.  He wanted us to be there.  Tina made several comments and tried to hustle CJ and Sarah up to bed.  When they left, I told him I was happy for him.  Then he told me that your mother was pregnant and that Blair thought she was going to have a little girl.”

“Starr,” Jack said.

Viki smiled.  “Yes, Starr.  He wanted to know what kind of man his father was.  He knew how awful Peter Manning had raised him and he knew to not repeat those same mistakes.  But he wanted to know about Victor Lord.”  Viki moved to the staircase and sat on one of the bottom steps.  “I told him he didn’t want to know those answers.  I told him to go, be happy with Blair and not give Victor Lord another thought.  But, he kept pushing, and, I snapped.”  Jack moved next to her, as her voice dropped to a whisper.  “One of my alters, Victor, came out.  He tried to get Todd to leave, but Todd recognized what was happening and urged me to fight it, to come back.  It worked but Todd sensed the depth of the darkness.  He asked again and…I told him.”

The silenced stretched until Jack asked, “How did he react?”

“He drew a corollary between what was done to me to what he did to Marty.  And then he feared he could do the same to his daughter,” Viki said at last.  “He couldn’t handle it.  He took off and we almost didn’t find him.  I was the one to figure out where he’d gone off to.”

“Where was that?”

“The family crypt.  He was tossing stones at Father’s tomb,” Viki explained.  “He told me that the wedding wasn’t going to happen, that he wouldn’t carry on the family curse.  I told him there was none and that he shouldn’t fear being happy.”  Viki looked up at Jack.  “That has been his biggest fear since he married your mother.  Even everything that happened when she was pregnant with you, it was the fear of being happy.”

Jack was still thinking about that when they got home that night.  Sam was asleep and Blair was working at her computer when Jack came down.  “What do you think Todd’s biggest fear is?” he asked her.

Blair turned to look at him.  “Where did that question come from?”

Jack sat on the chair nearest the desk.  “It was something Aunt Viki said to me tonight.  But I want to ask you.  What does he fears the most?”

Blair pondered the question, sifting through her memories.  All the times they tried to get to a place of peace and all the times it had been denied to them, up to and including the present.  She saw the answer and it saddened her.  “He fears he’ll never be happy.”  Blair looked down of a minute, then continued.  “I’ve lost count at the number of times we were happy and something happened to snatch it away from us.  “We were young, rich and about to be parents, and I get mugged.  We decide to try for another child and Todd learned about my lies.  We get married again, are expecting again, and he’s presumed dead.  He learns I’m pregnant again and I lie to him about who the father is.  We’re together after terrible years apart and he’s arrested.  I come to see him and he proposes and I reject him.”  Then she looked at Jack.  “I was afraid, a few weeks ago, that I’d lose him again.  He said I won’t, and it happened again.”  Tears fell down her cheeks and Jack opened his arms to her. 

He held her for a few minutes until she calmed down.  “That’s what Aunt Viki said.  That he’s afraid to try and be happy, that he’ll never get it.”  When Blair pulled away, Jack said, “I’m ready for that letter now, I think.”

Blair nodded and went into her attaché case.  She handed it to Jack and he wished her a good night.  Sitting at his desk, he opened the envelope and pulled out the letter.

It was all computer commands.  IP addresses, firewall setting, all complex and, as the note said, hopefully impenetrable.  Jack was good with computers and although it took him a while, he was able to follow the instructions.  A window popped up and Todd’s face appeared on the screen.  A soft smile radiated off his face.  “Jack, I’m…I didn’t expect to hear from you at all, much less this soon.”

“I’m still not sure about you,” Jack stated.

“Not surprising.  But you’re willing to listen.  That already make you a better man than I am,” Todd admitted. 

“Well, we have a family to protect.  So, let’s figure out how we can do that,” he replied.

At that moment, Todd was never prouder of his son.