Todd was still panting with exertion; he could barely feel the water around him. He didn't like the way Starr and Blair were shivering, though, so he didn't waste any time in following McBain's command that they get out of the river.
Todd and Jack shook themselves off like dogs while Blair and Starr shakily tried to wring the water out of their clothes and hair.
McBain impatiently tossed his cuffs in the air and caught them half a dozen times.
Todd rolled his eyes and held out his hands. The faster everyone got warm and dry, the better. At the last second, he remembered the big picture and snatched his arms away. "What about Irene? Did you get her?"
"Not yet," McBain admitted. "Just missed her in that warehouse."
"If you catch her, are you going to put her in a holding cell with Starr?" He was intimately familiar with the Llanview PD's holding cells. The usual procedure was to put all the men in one and all the women in another regardless of what harm those men and woman might have caused each other to get locked up in the first place. He imagined watching Irene attack Starr and being unable to do anything about it from the men's cell across the hall.
"I think we can manage not to do that," said McBain.
Todd paused. McBain had been pretty consistently decent to him these past few months, but a cop was a cop.
"John would never put Starr in that kind of danger," Blair said.
"No, he wouldn't," Starr agreed with a sneeze.
Todd nodded and held out his hands again.
"Todd Manning, you are under arrest for jailbreak, assaulting and threatening an officer, and the murder of Victor Lord Junior."
"Wait!" Jack interrupted. "He didn't murder Victor. I know I said he was the one who hit me, but he wasn't. It was Shane Morasco."
"Shane?" It was almost comical how Blair, Starr, and McBain all turned to stare at Jack in unison.
"Haven't you done enough to that kid?" McBain demanded. "Your father pulled your ass out of that warehouse, so you're going to lie about Shane Morasco instead?"
"Yes. I mean, no," Jack stammered. "Yes, I did enough to him. I killed Gigi Morasco. But I did see him at—"
"You killed Gigi?" asked McBain coolly.
"Not on purpose. I didn't know that the generator was there. I didn't—"
"Stop talking until your attorney gets here," Todd ordered.
To Todd's surprise, Jack closed his mouth and hung his head.
"Jack Manning, you are under arrest for lying in a police investigation and for false imprisonment of Gigi Morasco." McBain cuffed Jack, too. "Starr, I don't have another pair of handcuffs, but you're under arrest as an accessory to jailbreak and for assaulting and threatening an officer."
"OK," Starr agreed cheerily.
"And Blair." McBain looked at Blair a moment too long for Todd's taste. Todd didn't like the affection that seemed to underlie McBain's exasperation, either. "I don't have any evidence that you've harbored a fugitive during the past two days, and I don't really want to arrest you when I know you belong in the hospital. But do you think you can stay out of trouble until business hours tomorrow morning?"
"I'll certainly try, Detective McBain," said Blair, and Todd definitely was not on board with the playful southern belle flirting. He was a fan of it when it was directed at him. There was no need to direct it at McBain, though. Wasn't McBain supposed to be pining after Natalie while Natalie chased after Jessica's fiancée, who happened to be McBain's subordinate? That was enough to keep anyone busy.
"See that you do."
"Whatever security you got for Sam and Hope, get it for yourself," Todd put in a little too loudly. Protecting Blair wasn't McBain's job. "Irene's out there and she hates you."
"So I noticed." Blair smoothed Todd's wet hair back from his face one more time and he couldn't help closing his eyes and leaning into her touch. He had missed it too much for too long.
"You two!" Blair addressed Starr and Jack. "Be good for your father in jail tonight. Your attorney and I will be there in the morning."
"Are you going to check on Hope?" Starr asked anxiously. "Tell her I love her and I'll be back soon."
"Of course. She's fine," Blair said reassuringly. "Jack?" Jack didn't respond. "See you in the morning."
"We're a lot safer than you are," Todd told Blair. "Maybe you should go back to the hospital. Or get yourself arrested."
"Who would handle bailing everyone out if I did that?"
"Viki would," said Todd sternly. "I haven't been back long enough to piss her off, and she doesn't want to have to keep the kids forever."
"Go back to the hospital," McBain put in, and Todd scowled. He hadn't wanted McBain's help in this.
"You'll forgive me if I don't think of the hospital as a safe haven," said Blair dryly.
McBain, Jack, and Starr all reacted visibly; Todd had no idea why. He was tired of everyone else knowing more about his family than he did. Maybe he could bribe his children into spending their night in jail telling him all about it.
"Go home and take care of yourself, then," McBain instructed, and after that he had no patience for more goodbyes.
The next twenty minutes were all Miranda rights (like anyone who had ever seen a cop show didn't know them anyway) and being booked for the millionth time in his life. Starr, of course, came through like a trooper; Jack was a little too quiet.
Todd demanded his phone call.
"You can't make bail tonight. You already know your lawyer will be here tomorrow. What do you need a phone call for?"
"I don't think I have to justify that to you." McBain waved at one of the underlings and Todd was escorted to the phone.
He heaved a sigh of relief when Viki answered.
"Sis? Are Sam and Hope still there? Is Sam awake? I need a favor, but it's an unselfish favor, which makes it not really a favor at all…"
***
Blair had barely made it back to the car she and Jack had abandoned near the police station that afternoon when her phone let loose the hysterical buzz it only gave when her children called.
John had made it clear that she couldn't do anything else for Starr or Jack tonight; the caller must be Sam.
She sighed and slumped into her seat. She would never have considered not taking the call, but she did permit herself a second to wish Sam's timing had been better.
"Hi, Sam."
"Mom!" Sam's usual exuberance filled the car. Blair pulled the phone an inch away from her ear. "Are you on your way home?"
"Almost. But you and Hope need to stay with your Aunt Viki tonight, all right?"
"Me and Bree are making hammocks and we're going to pretend we're camping out in a treehouse. But can you come over and say goodnight? Please? I miss you and it's weird being somewhere else. It's like when Michael and Marcie used to call me Tommy and we lived all over the place."
"You don't remember that." She was sure he didn't remember that. She'd told him about Michael and Marcie so he wouldn't get blindsided by elementary school gossip the way Starr and Jack had at his age, but he'd only been two years old when she'd become his mother.
"Please come and say goodnight?"
"I'll be there soon." Sam couldn't have picked better words to get her to come. She was tempted to bring Sam and Hope home anyway, but her head throbbed with the painful reminder that they were better cared for where they were. Just for tonight. Tomorrow, everyone would be free and they would all be together.
She decided not to contemplate whether "everyone" included Todd.
Blair didn't even reach the front door of Llanfair before she heard Sam's voice. But once she and Sam were face to face, Sam went rigid and stared at her.
"Sam?"
"YOU LOOK AWFUL!" Sam yelled at the top of his voice. Blair winced, not just at the noise but at the promise of being confronted with Viki and Natalie and Jessica and Clint and, worst of all, Tina.
As luck would have it, it was Tina who materialized first. It was probably the first time in her life Tina had responded to a child's shout, and that included the shouts of her own two children.
Tina took in the bruises on Blair's face, the damp and wrinkled clothing, and the rat's nest that her hair had become when she'd jumped in the river.
"Your mom doesn't look any different than usual to me, Sam."
"SHE SHOULD BE IN THE HOSPITAL!" Sam continued with a melodramatic flair Blair hadn't seen since Starr had been seven.
"Tina, what's going on out there? Who should be in the hospital?"
Blair froze. It should have occurred to her, of course; if Tina was somewhere, Cord couldn't be far away. It was some kind of rule of nature.
On the one hand, at least she actually liked Cord.
On the other hand, even though their romance had been over for twenty years, she still would have redone her makeup if she'd expected to come face to face with him. Old boyfriends came with certain rules, especially when they were attached to women she hated.
"Blair."
"I would hug you, but I took an unplanned dip in the Llantano river today and you'd have to throw out your clothes and get a shot."
"A good idea if you touch Blair anyway," muttered Tina.
Cord threw a long suffering look over his shoulder at Tina. Through all of her pain and exhaustion, Blair managed to enjoy it.
"I'll risk it," Cord told Blair, and he wrapped her into a hug. As they pulled apart, he took a hard look at Blair's face. "What happened there?"
Blair glanced in the mirror. A bruise was blooming on her cheek. "Tina's mother knocked me out and kicked me in the face before she threw my son in the trunk of her car and threatened to cut out his heart."
It had the intended effect of shutting Tina the hell up.
It had the unintended effect of Sam squeaking "Is she really going to cut Jack's heart out?"
Shit. Blair had completely forgotten that Sam was there. Maybe Jack had had more of a point than she'd wanted to admit when he'd said that three children (plus granddaughter and pseudo-stepdaughter) were too many for her.
She dropped to the floor so she could look Sam in the eye. "She's not going to hurt anyone. Your Uncle Todd got Jack out of there and they're both someplace safe with Starr."
"Where?"
Blair decided that Sam was going to find out soon enough anyway. "Jail."
"Again?"
"Just for tonight. And you and Hope and everyone else here is safe with Shaun looking out for you."
"What about you?"
"I'm going back home to get everything ready for when you all come home tomorrow."
"No," said Sam firmly.
"You can't go home alone with a head injury while Irene's out there. You just can't," Cord whispered in her ear.
She twisted to look at him. Twisting hurt. She'd been running on adrenaline alone for a long time and even that was starting to drain away. "What do you suggest?"
"I suggest that Todd's not using his room tonight, so you might as well. I don't see either Todd or Viki having a problem with it."
He didn't seem to care whether Blair had a problem with it. It didn't matter, though; she couldn't have Sam waking up scared in the middle of the night without the only parent he had left. She'd just get out of the house early in the morning before she had to do something truly awful like face the assembled Lord-Buchanans over breakfast.
The next hour ranged from awkward (explaining Irene's fixation on the heart of a Lord nonsense to Viki, Natalie, Jessica, and Tina was something Blair could have done without) to unexpectedly pleasant (Bree and Sam had shown real ingenuity in creating their "treehouse" in Bree's bedroom).
At last, she was blissfully allowed a hot shower along with a few private tears because Starr and Jack were spending the night in the police station's basement instead of getting ready to sleep in the lap of luxury like she was.
The clothes she'd been wearing all day went directly into the garbage. She didn't want to see them again even if they were salvageable.
That left her in the undeniable position of being naked. She allowed herself a moment to fantasize about wandering through Llanfair in her current state. Tina would break her neck trying to cover Cord's eyes, Clint would probably have another heart attack, and Viki would undoubtedly splinter into her thousand alters. In the long run, it probably wasn't worth it.
Instead, Blair opened Todd's dresser and helped herself to one of his t-shirts.
A second later she was gripping the drawer to keep her balance and telling herself that it was the head injury that was making her dizzy.
It was not the intimacy of clothes that were supposed to be caressing Todd's naked skin caressing her naked skin instead.
She was over Todd. She'd been over Todd for years. It didn't matter that she'd thought Victor was Todd at the time; it had still been her love for Todd that she'd put behind her.
She caught a glimpse of her own wet hair and remembered how Todd had looked in the river with heat radiating off his almost incomprehensibly strong body despite the autumn chill. She remembered his wet hair begging to be touched. He'd looked at her like he might devour her if given half a chance, but also like just being near her was a thing to be treasured.
It was the situation, she told herself. He'd just saved our son's life when no one else could have. Anyone would imagine what it would be like to pin him down on the dock and see how much stamina he had left after that swim.
She decided not to borrow a pair of his boxers. There were limits.
Someone knocked on the door.
Then again, Todd owed her this after all the times he'd appeared in her bedroom without permission over the years. Clothes were just clothes. She pulled the boxers on and steadfastly did not think about what else had touched them.
The door opened enough for Blair to see Cord's shadow.
"Blair? Are you decent?"
"Depends who you ask."
"Very funny." Cord deposited a tray of sandwiches, fruit, and potato chips on the table. "When's the last time you ate?"
Blair rolled her eyes. She and Cord hadn't seen each other in years, but he had had no problem appointing himself her caretaker. Now he was deftly striding the line between "sweet" and "mind your own business."
"I was a good girl. I ate all my salad at lunch," she told him.
"So you can keep it up and eat your dinner before you go to bed." He nudged her in the direction of the bed and put a sandwich in her hand.
"I don't think Viki is in favor of people eating in her guest bedrooms."
"Viki's idea," Cord trumped her. "Right after Natalie called John to get an update on Irene and he told her that you skipped out of the hospital where you were supposed to be staying overnight. He's glad you had the brains not to go home alone. His words, not mine."
Blair bit into the sandwich. The room spun again and she realized that she was ravenous. "I need to stop dating good men who go around worrying about me 20 years later."
Cord appeared to accept that as a thank you. "Well, you can start dating terrible men exclusively tomorrow."
Blair shook her head through a mouthful of fruit. "Can't do that anymore, either. My children are traumatized enough. I'll just have to give up men completely."
"I hear you there." He pulled a chair around to sit beside her. "Giving up women completely is something I should have done years ago. No offense."
"None taken." It took a moment for her curiosity to to kick in. "So you and Tina aren't back together?"
Cord sighed heavily. "She's the mother of my children. I'll always care about her. We spent so much of our lives together... she told me the other day that we'll never love anyone else as much as we loved each other, and that's true."
"But..." Blair prompted. She found Cord's problems much more interesting than her own.
"But she thinks that's enough. Every time she says 'trust me' she pulls the ball away and I'm the one that ends up lying flat on my back."
Blair almost choked. Cord's problems weren't more interesting than hers. They were hers, except for the sports metaphor.
"... She charges into every situation with guns blazing," Cord was saying. "That's who she is. I love that about her. But it always ends the same."
"You get your heart broken and you feel like a fool because you didn't learn your lesson the last time."
"There's no way I can trust her when she says things are going to be different this time."
"And it's not fair to say 'prove it.' Not after everything he's been through."
"I didn't tell her to prove it, but that's how she took it. She's on a quest."
"He was never going to stop, no matter what. That tenacity, it's attractive-"
"Too attractive-"
"But it's a double-edged sword. There are times when he needs to stop, and he doesn't."
"Tell me about it."
"At least Tina never told you one of your children was dead and then had you adopt him."
"Blair, she crashed my wedding to another woman with my baby in her arms. Except he wasn't my baby. He wasn't even hers."
"Were you supposed to understand that that proved how much she loved you and how you belonged together?"
"Exactly. My fault, anyway, because no matter how hard I grieved for her when she went over that waterfall in Argentina I should have known she wasn't dead because she was sending me thoughts."
"Change 'waterfall in Argentina' to 'cliff in Ireland' and I've been there and done that." Blair's eyes burned with unexpected tears; she was too tired to hold them back. "But this time he has a point. This time I wouldn't blame him if he hated me. I'm not sure if he does hate me and those looks and those touches and that kiss are all some kind of trick. He's right, I should have known."
Cord handed her one of the anachronistic monogrammed handkerchiefs that Buchanan men were required by DNA to carry.
"Blair, you couldn't have known. No one could have foreseen this. When they catch Irene, I'm thinking of having her interrogated to make sure there aren't two Tinas that she's been switching off on me."
"I think the world would have imploded by now if there were two Tinas on it."
"Most of us thought the same thing about two Todds."
"There weren't two Todds, though." Blair sniffled. "There was Todd and there was Victor and they weren't the same. There were things they had in common, but so do Todd and Tina and we don't confuse them."
"That would be awkward," Cord agreed.
"Victor did things I knew Todd wouldn't do. But I let it go because people change. There are things I did once that I wouldn't do now."
"That's true of all of us." Cord rubbed Blair's shoulder, but all that did was remind her that she was wearing Todd's shirt. She was going to see Todd tomorrow and the next day and the next day until she didn't.
"Tina is lucky to have you. She always was."
"Tina doesn't have me. Not like that."
Blair dried her eyes a final time. "I thought Todd didn't have me. I thought the roller coaster was over. Then I found out that the only reason I could get past him was because he wasn't him. I hate to break it to you, but unless Irene really does switch you over to a fake Tina, she'll always have you."
Cord didn't reply. He didn't have to. Instead, he stood up and took the now empty tray from Blair's hands. "You want anything else?"
"No."
"I'm going to come in and check on you a few times tonight, so don't be surprised. You can't mess around with a head injury."
"You don't have to do that."
"I want to. Goodnight, Blair."
"Goodnight, Cord."
He closed the door and she rolled the fabric of the shirt between her fingers. "Goodnight, Todd," she whispered.