Through the Darkness, Chapter Thirty One

CHAPTER 31

August, 2013

Todd went out looking for his brother.  At first, he thought Victor had left the hospital completely, but as he walked past an exam room, he saw his brother standing with his back to the door seemingly staring at the wall.  Todd took a deep breath as he went in.  “Victor?” he asked cautiously. 

Victor turned to him.  “What do you remember the night my son was born?” he asked Todd, a note of desperation in his voice.

There were a number of moments in Todd’s life he didn’t like to think about and that had been added to the list the minute it happened.  He still didn’t like to dwell on it.  “Victor, it was a while ago and I didn’t go over it in my head…”

“That’s bullshit,” Victor said calmly.  “You told me about the guilt of it.  If anyone knows you well, it’s me and I know that when you feel guilty about something, it plays over in your head and eats you up.”

This was one of those times he really hated having a twin, especially one who had all his memories.  “You got me there.  What do you want to know?”

“Where you found Tea,” he answered.  “I want to know everything you know about that.”

Todd closed his eyes and found himself back in the parking garage of the hotel Tea had stayed at.  “It was a parking garage, underneath the place she was staying.  I was on the phone calling to find out where she was.  Starr had a court hearing and Tea, very unlike her, never showed.  Not that she was needed in the end, but I went looking for her.  She looked like she had passed out when she was trying to get into the car.  When she came to, she said she had overslept, she was rushing and she passed out.  I took her keys and she tried to get them back.  I told her she could hate me all she wanted, but I was going to drive her to the hospital.”

“Did you see anyone else there?”

“No, I didn’t,” Todd told him.  “I walked in, I was yammering on the phone, but there was no one else there.  I’m sure of that.”  Then, Todd paused.  “At least, I’m pretty sure of that.”

Victor jumped at that.  “Pretty sure?” 

“Well, I wasn’t really paying attention to a lot, and then all my attention was on Tea after I found her.  I mean, it’s possible that someone else was there.  It was a public lot.”

“But if it was, wouldn’t someone else have come to help her?” Victor asked.  Todd saw his point.  “When was this?  When did it happen?”

“It was…it was the end of May, beginning of June,” Todd said.

“May, June,” Victor repeated, closing his eyes.  “I remember Allison showing me a headline about Viki recovering from her shooting.  I remember seeing the news about…about the accident and I remember seeing the headline about your bail jumping.  And then, the next time I saw her, she had a copy of The Sun from when Starr performed up in Port Charles.”

“That was a couple of months apart.  Cole and Hope…that was in March and Starr didn’t do her show until July,” Todd said, putting the pieces together.

“I know she wasn’t with me for a while.  When she was, she’d be in every day to see me.  But there was a long period that she didn’t come to see me,” Victor said, almost to himself.

“Victor…” Todd began.  “Victor, much as I am in favor of paranoid conclusions, you need to ease off a bit.”

“What if they tried to use her to get to me?  What if they tried to use the baby?” Victor questioned.  “It’s happened before.  Mitch used Blair, tried to use Starr and he got you!”

“Mitch was dead before any of this happened, Victor!” Todd yelled back, his voice getting louder.  “Natalie shot him on New Year’s Eve.  There was a prison break.  He escaped, so did Allison and Cole and others.”  Todd didn’t want to think about Mitch snatching him.  It brought up too many things he still hadn’t come to terms with.

“But what if that was the plan?” Victor’s voice was getting more desperate, more hysterical.  “Use them to get me to cooperate?  Because, I remember…I remember fighting, trying to figure a way to escape, even before then.  What if they wanted to use them to silence me?”  His voice was breaking at that and he slid down to the floor of the room.

Todd crouched down as best he could next to Victor, fearing for him for the first time ever.  He finally sat down and was shoulder to shoulder next to his brother.  “Victor, we still don’t know who the primary target has been.  I was the one that got kidnapped.  Then I escaped and they then wanted you dead.  Next, you get kidnapped and then you escape.  And how does Clint figure into all this?”  Todd looked at Victor and Victor back at him.  “We’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise you.”

“Before the baby comes.  I don’t want anything to be hanging over us, any of us, then,” Victor said as he stood up.  He seemed calmer now, which Todd was grateful for.  Dealing with neurotic Tea was bad, but he didn’t much like the idea of handling Victor either.

Todd struggled to get to his feet.  “Ah, a little help here would be appreciated,” Todd called.  Remember, shot in the leg!”

Victor turned back and grabbed Todd’s hand, helping him to his feet.  They made their way back to the waiting room and found Tea there.  “Hey, I was just going to coming look for you,” she said to Victor.

“I just needed a little time to think,” he answered.  “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I wanted to check in with you.  We haven’t heard anything and I was getting tired, so I figured I’d come and see if you were still here and if there was any news,” Tea explained.

He looked to Viki.  “Anymore word on Clint?”

Viki walked over to her brothers.  “There’s no change, so obviously, he’s being admitted.  Larry also told me that, in examining him, they found a tattoo…like the one you have.”

“And I, for one, would like to know what you know about it Victor,” Bo said as he joined them.   

“Are you accusing me of this?” Victor yelled, about ready to fly off the handle.

“No, Victor, he’s not,” Tea said, trying to calm him.  “That’s not what you’re asking, right, Bo?”

“You haven’t answered any questions since you’ve been back, Victor.  And now, the same tattoo you have has shown up on my brother,” Bo replied.   “We need to have a talk about this.  A lot has happened, and you seem to be the key.”

“Bo, look, it’s late.  Maybe you and Victor can talk in the morning, right?” Todd asked, stepping in to try and calm the situation.

“Yes, I think that would be for the best,” Tea added.

“Good.”  Todd moved over to Viki.  “You need me here?  I want to get back to Blair.”

“Yes, I’m fine.  You go back to your family,” Viki said with a weak smile.

Todd nodded.  “Can you drop me off at Llanfair?” he asked Tea.  She nodded and they piled into the car.  A short time later, Todd was walking into the Lord Library.  He was surprised to see Blair there. 

“Todd, any news on Clint?” she asked as they embraced.

“Well, he’s still out of it, from what I heard.  And here’s the weird thing.  He has the same tattoo as Victor,” Todd said, point to his wrist.

“What does that mean?  He’s been branded or something?”

“That’s what Bo wanted to know.  But Victor…he took it the wrong way.  There was a bit of a scene, but I brought it under control,” Todd answered with a smirk. 

Now Blair looked suspicious.  “You calmed down Bo and Victor?”

Todd shrugged his head a bit.  “Well, Tea put in her two cents too, I guess.”  Todd moved to the wet bar and fixed himself a drink.  After he poured it, he sat down with Blair joining him.  “Victor…he wanted to know about the night…the baby…”  He took a gulp of the scotch.  Blair knew what he was talking about.  It was a subject that even they hadn’t brought up.  It was too close to one of their darker periods.  She also realized it was the secret he had been keeping when she had come to Port Charles for Starr’s performance.   “He has a crazy idea of what happened that night.”

Todd went on to tell Blair about finding Tea in the hotel garage.  “He kept asking me if I’d seen anyone there.  He was desperate to find that out.”

“Well, did you see anyone?  Is it possible?” Blair asked in a soft voice.

He shrugged his shoulders.  “I guess it’s possible.  I never really thought about it.  It seems too far-fetched.”

“When you lose something you love, even if you didn’t know you had it, you look for any answer to make the pain go away.  They can all be ridiculous but you hold onto them,” she said.

“Yeah, I get that,” he said as he finished his drink.  “Look, it’s been a long day.  I just want to get some rest.  I’ll probably go into to check on Viki on the way into the office, tomorrow.”  He put the glass down and took Blair hand.  They closed the light in the room as they left, which suited the dark thoughts Todd was having.

His brother’s voice was nagging at him.  What if Victor was right and there was another reason Tea’s son died?  Todd knew it would haunt his thoughts for the night.