Through the Darkness, Chapter Twenty

CHAPTER 20

August, 2013

As Blair, Tea and Larry approached the front door of Llanfair, Tea turned to the others.  “Look, please don’t say anything about….”  She put her hand on her stomach.

Blair saw the look in her eyes and nodded.  She understood that, while Tea may have passed the crucial stage of the pregnancy, she and the family were all under a lot of stress.  After what happened last year, Blair understood that Tea wasn’t taking any chances.  They walked into Llanfair and proceeded into the library. 

Viki looked up at her in-laws.  “Tea, how are you feeling?  Blair told us you’ve had a stomach bug?”

Tea nodded.  “Yes, but I’m actually feeling better, thank you for asking.”

Viki then turned her attention to Larry.  “Did you ever find Clint’s medication?”

“That was why I came here,” he said as Natalie, Jessica, Jack and Starr returned from the kitchen.  Tina and Cord also appeared and Larry informed them, “The pills were in his desk at his BE office.  But there was a problem with them.”  He took a folder out his briefcase and paged through it.  “He’s supposed to be on an anti-rejection medicine for his heart transplant, correct?”

“Yes,” Viki answered.  “Ciclosporin, I believe.”

“That was not what the pills I found were,” Larry told her.

“What?” Natalie’s voice was heard.

“He was taking pills, but they weren’t for his heart.  All I can see is, it was for the neurological centers,” Larry said.  “I can’t even tell you what it is exactly.  The hospital’s pharmacist has never seen this compound before.”

“Do they have any idea what it could be for?” Jessica asked as she and her sister came over and read the file with their mother.

“Best guess, and it’s just that, a guess, but it could have something to do with mental states,” Larry replied.  The room offered him a variety of confused looks as he struggled to explain further.  “It could heighten paranoia, anxiety, make the patient more susceptible to reasoning.  A sample is being sent to the FDA for further testing.”

“How long has he been taking it?” Viki asked.

“Well, from the looks of it, I’d say at least eight months, probably longer.”

Cord pulled Larry aside and asked him more questions, but Blair caught a look in Starr’s eye.   “What are you thinking?”

Starr looked up quickly, like a deer caught in the headlights.  “It’s really far off, Mom,” she said.

Jack let out a short laugh.  “The last time you came up with an off the wall theory, you were proven right.”

Starr turned to her brother and then back to Blair.  “Look, when I was up in Port Charles with Dad, he was acting…weirder than normal.  There was definitely some paranoia going on and he was just…different.”  She offered her mother a sympathetic look.  “When he got back after stopping your wedding, he was certain you’d come back to him soon.  I even called him on it and he said something like, ‘what’s that obvious?’” And then, all of a sudden, he was on TV declaring his love to Carly Jacks.  Even Michael thought it was strange.  We didn’t even know they’d gotten like that.  But it was that kind of bizarre behavior.”

Blair processed what her daughter was saying.  “Starr, your dad has always been a touch paranoid…”

“I know that, but this…this was over the top, even by his standards,” she said.

“You think he could have been fed whatever Clint was drugged with?” Jack asked.

“I know it sounds crazy…”

Jack shook his head.  “No crazier than the identical twin brother who look nothing alike.”

Blair looked pensive and it must have attracted Tea’s attention.  The lawyer came over and inquired about what they were talking about.  When Starr finished, Tea inhaled deeply.  “The night…the night I gave birth, Todd was in a full on meltdown.  Laughing manically, unable to concentrate, things like that.”

“And when he confessed to me about the switch, he told me that woman in the woods, Heather Webber, it took a lot of work on her part to convince Dad to go along with it,” Starr told them.  Her eyes slid towards her brother and she said, “He’d done something like that before.  One thing about Dad, he doesn’t really screw up the same way twice.”

Tea and Blair walked over to Larry, who was still speaking with Cord.  “Larry, sorry to interrupt.  This drug, it could be found in the blood stream?” Blair asked.

“Yes.  I’m having tests run.  We know that Clint hasn’t had his anti-rejection meds, now I’m having his blood sample tested again the pills I found.”

Tea was on the phone before he finished his sentence.  “Starr, was he hospitalized at all while he was in Port Charles?”  Starr indicated yes and then the other end of the call seemed to pick up.  “Dani, I need you to go to General Hospital in the morning.  I’ll send over an affidavit if needed, but I need your father’s hospital records from,” she looked to Starr.

Starr thought quickly.  “It was late January or early February.”

“Late January, early February.  All test that were run at that point.  I’d assume they’d do a blood test on him,” Tea said.  “You’ll be leaving in the afternoon?  Okay, have you found anything out?”  There was a long pause and Blair could hear Dani on the other end.  “And she’s sure?  Okay, I’ll let Bo know.  We’ll see you tomorrow.”  She ended the call and turned to Blair.  “Dani said she spoke to the hotel manager, Olivia Falconari.  She said she remembered someone dropping off packages for Todd.  Usually, Todd would ignore them, but the last time, she was asked to slip a note under the door of his room.”

Blair looked at Tea for a minute.  “Does she know what the courier looked like?”

“The woman didn’t give a firm description, but said he was a young, African-American man, clean cut and business-like.  Kept telling her he was trying to make contact with Todd, looking for a job at the Port Charles Sun.”  Then Tea went over to Larry.  “I just wanted to let you know, Dani’s going to get Todd’s hospital records from when he was in Port Charles.  Starr has a suspicion that whatever drug was being given to Clint may have also been given to Todd.”

Larry looked to Starr.  “What was he acting like?”

“He was definitely acting manic.  Half the time, he didn’t even make any sense.  My dad may do crazy stuff, but he’s more calculating about it,” Starr said.

Larry nodded and turned to Tea.  “If Dani has any problems getting the medical records, please call me.  I can say I’m his doctor, he’s been admitted and I need his complete medical history.”  He looked at his watch.  “I have some things I need to check on at the hospital.  Let me know when Dani gets back.”  With that he left.

“I think I’ll be going too,” Tea said, sending a knowing look to Blair, who nodded.  “If I hear anything else from Dani, I’ll let you know.”

After Tea was gone, Blair turned and saw Viki sitting on the couch reading the report Larry had made.  She went over to sit down next to her.  “How are you holding up?” she asked.

“I can’t help thinking that I may have pushed him into this,” Viki said. 

“Oh, Viki, why do you think that?”

She looked at the report again.  “I should have just accepted his generosity with the whole Pellegrino debacle.  But, as always, my pride got in the way.  And he reacted, like I would think a Buchanan would react.  Then with what he did in Natty’s name, it just further pissed me off.  So I broke the engagement.  I felt I had to.  And that only drove him over the cliff faster.”

“Viki, this was being done to him before any of that happened.  Larry said it had to have been for at least, what, eight months?’ she asked, putting her hand on the other woman’s shoulder. 

“And yet, I do,” she replied.  Then she looked at Starr and Jack in conversation.  “Starr thinks something similar was being done to Todd?”

Blair’s gaze turned to her daughter.  “Todd’s behavior all last year was erratic to begin with. I don’t know if it’s true, but we don’t have much to go on.”  Then, she looked back to Viki. 

“Do you know how many times I wanted to pick up the phone and call him?  I was so worried about him being alone.  He’s never been good alone in the world,” she said, a sad smile on her face.  “And I just couldn’t.  I couldn’t get over my…disappointment.  Not even in the murder charge, but him the fact that he felt he couldn’t come to me.”

“I know the feeling.  And after Cole and Hope…he vowed to me, then and there, that he’d never stop trying to put us back together.  He said those exact words.  And what did I do?”  A humorless laugh bubbled out of her.  “Maybe someone should have me tested for that drug.  I can’t even remember what I even saw in Tomas.  It was more, trying to get him out of my mind than anything else.”  Then she looked at Viki.  “Did I ever tell you, he proposed to me in Port Charles?”

Viki smiled at her.  “No you didn’t.”

“Yes, we had dinner after Starr’s concert and he assumed that my being there alone meant that I wanted to get back together with him,” she explained.  “And I told him I was getting married to another man.  I showed him the ring and he bitched about it being too small.  And he challenged me to tell him I loved Tomas and that I didn’t love him.”  She looked at Viki, who offered her a sympathetic look.  “I couldn’t…I could not tell him I didn’t love him.  I’ve loved him longer than even I’ve acknowledged.”  There were tears in her eyes as she asked, “Why didn’t I say yes then?  We would have had more time together!”

“You will have all the time in the world, Blair.  We’ll find him.  Todd has come back from the dead for you, more than once.  And I know my brother.  He’s fighting to get back to you now,” Viki said.

In her heart, Blair knew this.  Todd had fought back from massive injuries to come back to her.  He’d fought his own cynical heart.  He’d fought through eight years of torture.  He never stopped fighting to get back to her.  She sat upright and smiled at Viki.  “Thank you for that.”

“Any time, darling.”  Then the clock chimed and Viki looked at her watch.  “Would you like to stay for dinner?  Dorian’s still out of town, right?”

Blair looked over and saw that Jessica and Natalie had brought their children down.  She thought of Sam, who’d been at his friends all day.  “Thank you for the offer, but I want to get home with my kids.  Try to offer them some normalcy.”  She got up and began rounding up Jack and Starr.  “But, we’ll be back in the morning.”

Viki nodded.  “Alright, we’ll see you then.”

Blair made a stop to pick up Sam then they all decided to get Chinese takeout.  Once that was picked up, the headed back to La Boulaie.  They ate and were cleaning up when a voice boomed through the house.  “Darlings, I’m back!” Dorian’s voice called.

Blair’s expression widened and was mirrored by her two elder children.  “Wasn’t she supposed to be back a few days from now?” Starr asked.

Blair nodded as Dorian sashayed in.  “Hello, my darlings,” she said, then noticed Starr.  “Starr, dear, what are you doing back?  I thought you were having a wonderful time in Los Angeles?”

Starr didn’t know what to say, but Jack, surprisingly answered.  “We had a family crisis and thought she should be back for it.  What are you doing back early?”

“Carl was called away on urgent business and since he was unsure of how long it would take, I told him I had been away too long as it was,” Dorian explained.

Blair took the pause in the conversation and looked to Sam and said, “Why don’t you go upstairs and get out some books for storytime?”

“Is there going to be a grownup talk?” Sam asked grumpily.

“Yes, there is,” Blair admitted, sending her youngest son upstairs.

“There was a crisis and no one call me?” Dorian asked, her face growing angry.

“It was a crisis with the Lord family,” Blair informed her.

“Oh.”  That seemed to perk Dorian up.  “Is the paper being shut down?”

“It had nothing to do with The Banner,” Jack said curious why she’d think it was The Banner.  “My father was kidnapped!”

Blair was taken aback by how emotional Jack was when he said that.  But it didn’t seem to faze Dorian.  “Kidnapped?  Or did he screw up again and run away?” She turned back to Blair.  “The smartest thing you did was dump that ne’er do well.  No matter how much Viki thinks he’s a poor innocent.”  She turned and headed for the foyer.

Something snapped in Blair.  She knew Dorian and Todd had never and would never get along.  Dorian saw Todd was little better than his father and Todd never had gotten over any number of things Dorian had pulled to keep them apart.  In a low voice, she whisper, “Go upstairs and pack overnight bags.”  When neither moved, she repeated herself, stressing to her children that she meant it.  Jack and Starr hastened up the stairs. 

She headed into the living room and closed the door.  Still facing that way, she said, “I’ve had to do a lot of thinking in the last few day.  All the time that Todd and I have been apart.  And we’re both to blame for most of that.  We’ve lied to each other, our priorities weren’t where they should have been.  We’ve come together and been torn apart,” she began, “A few days ago, Jack was talking to his father over a video conference.  Bo was there.  And while the connection was up, masked men came in and shot Todd with a stun gun.  A subsequent investigation has been launched about not only that, but the fact that people Todd loves are being targeted to make Todd jump through hoops.”

Dorian sat there and said, “You’re serious?”  By the look Blair gave her, she didn’t need an answer.

“I have been trying to keep it together for my children.  I have been trying to keep it away from Sam.  I will not have you shoot you mouth off about the father of my children,” she said.  “I will not have you speak like that about my husband.”