"What are you guys doing?"
Starr looked over to the doorway to see Sam staring at them with a perplexed look on his face.
Jack hastily mopped his face with a plush bunny and then tossed it at his little brother. "Nothing, what are you doing?"
Sam wandered in and clamored up on the bed, kicking a stuffed spider in Starr's direction. "Jack, are you okay?"
"Why would you ask that, Sam?" Starr asked as Jack pursed his lips together. Jack was half afraid he'd start bawling again at the question.
"Because we haven't done anything like this since I was really little... since before Hope was born," Sam pointed out.
"Did I mention that Mannings are pretty smart and observant, too?" Starr said to Jack.
"I haven't been okay for awhile, Sam," Jack admitted. "I'm sorry about that."
"You'll be okay," Sam said with all confidence. "You're Iron Man!"
Jack couldn't help but grin. "Is that so?"
"Sure," Sam nodded. "Tony Stark is the smartest guy in the world. He can always figure out how to do things... even if he messes up. And he does mess up. A lot."
A slow grin of agreement spread across Starr's face. "Yeah, that is true. Tony Stark is a mess but he always figures out how to fix it. Sometimes, he just needs help from the people who care about him the most."
"All right, all right," Jack gave Starr a light shove. "I get it. Thanks Sam."
"So who am I?" Starr asked. "If Jack's Iron Man... who do I get to be?"
Jack plucked the stuffed spider off the bed. "Black Widow!"
Sam laughed loudly at that and his two older siblings couldn't help but join in. "Can we all sleep in here tonight? Like we used to?"
"Ugh," Starr said playfully. "We all have school tomorrow and if we all sleep together we won't actually get any sleep. You kick," she pointed at Sam, "and you snore," she punched Jack on the arm.
"You drool," Sam and Jack said in unison.
Starr looked appalled.
"Seriously," Jack nodded. "If you're facing the wrong way I start dreaming that I'm drowning."
Starr thwapped him in the face with her pillow. Jack retaliated by grabbing her wrists and yelling "Get her, Sam!" Sam attacked Starr's sides with his fingers earning a shriek and a violent twist from her that resulted in the three of them falling off the bed with a loud thump.
"Do I even want to know what's going on in there?" Blair's voice came from down the hall. She looked in to see her three kids in a laughing heap together on the floor and almost burst into tears. How long had it been since the three of them had ridiculous, silly fun together? "What's all this?"
The three Manning kids burst out into giggles as they scrambled up from the floor. "Nothing," Starr said, sharing a conspiratorial grin with her brothers. "We're just growing up Manning."
Sam flung his arms around Blair's waist. "Night Mom!" He let go and padded down the hall to his room.
Jack followed, stopping and giving his mother a hug. "Night Mom," his tone was softer.
Blair looked after her boys and then shot Starr a questioning look.
"I think our Jack is really coming back," Starr smiled. "Whatever groundwork you've been laying has paid off. It's made a difference."
"That's good to hear," Blair said softly.
"Did Dad go back to Aunt Viki's?"
Blair nodded. "I told him to go get some rest. He's got some busy days ahead."
"It's not going to keep him away," Starr pointed out. "You know that, right?"
"Goodnight, Starr."
The conference room looked like any other conference room. Todd drummed his fingers on the table as his lawyer, Cybil, flipped casually through her files. Blair sat on the other side of him looking tense.
Tea and Victor swept into the room a few minutes later. Or rather, Tea did. Victor looked exhausted, bored and irritated all at the same time. Tea took note of Blair and stopped short. "What is she doing here?"
Blair instantly got her back up at Tea's tone. The hand resting casually on the table balled into a fist as she scowled.
Todd covered said hand with his. "I wanted her here."
Tea's lips tightened. "She doesn't have any right to be here. She's not your wife and she's not your lawyer."
"There's no reason for her not to be here," Cybil replied casually. "She certainly has plenty of input to offer to the proceedings. If your client doesn't object we can go forward."
Tea turned to give Victor a pointed look. He leaned back in his chair and gave her an insolent stare.
"Blair can stay, it's fine by me."
Trouble in paradise? Blair wondered as she noted the adversarial vibe between Tea and Victor. Tea liked to fight things out in court. Winning was oxygen to her and she didn't care how she got a victory, she just wanted it. But Victor, Blair studied him, he looked weary in a way that reached further than not getting enough sleep. He looked tired down to his soul and his words about wanting it all to be over echoed in her head.
Much like Todd, Victor wasn't one to voice his fears. Getting him to open up in the past had required patience and a lot of loving effort. He couldn't imagine Tea having the patience for it, if she had even noticed his exhaustion. Blair had the very distinct feeling that Victor did not want to fight over the things that were Todd's because he had his own fight ahead of him. A fight to find a sense of self when he had his whole identity taken away and replaced with that of another.
A sharp stab of sorrow hit Blair then. Victor was facing something very difficult and very different from Todd's own battles.
Tea scowled as she took her seat and jumped right into the purpose of the meeting. "Let's get down to brass texts. Victor successfully ran The Sun during Todd's absence. There are questions regarding Todd's initial trust fund in the first place. What did Victor Lord, Sr. actually specify in regards to his beneficiary?"
"The money is mine," Todd said curtly. "The trust fund was specifically for me. If it hadn't been, I wouldn't have had to answer questions based on my history and upbringing. And do not talk about the past eight years as if I was on vacation. It wasn't an absence it was an abduction and an imprisonment."
The mediator cleared his throat at that point. "Ms. Delgado, we are not in court. Wordplay isn't going to do much here. You want brass texts? Then stick to them. State your reasoning as to why you feel your client deserves a share of the money and how much you're talking about. We can move forward from there."
Blair wasn't particularly thrilled to be there if she had to be honest with herself. The law rarely smiled upon her, whether through cops or lawyers, and it was only Todd's insistence that made her come. I really am the biggest sucker he's ever known, she lamented to herself. As Tea droned on, Blair's thoughts wandered to Jack's upcoming birthday and the secret project she'd been working on that she was about ready to unleash.
She was shocked out of her thoughts at Tea's harsh voice getting even harsher. "So instead of coming to a reasonable agreement you'd rather leave Victor, as well as myself and Daniella completely destitute? You won't be happy until we're in the gutter!"
"Destitute?" Blair questioned.
All eyes turned to her.
She sat up straighter in her chair. "Victor, may I speak to you for a moment? In private?"
"Absolutely not," Tea refused even as Victor was getting out of his chair. As he walked to the other side of the room, jerking his head for Blair to come with him, Tea slammed her notebook onto the table angrily.
"Blair," Todd said warningly.
Blair hushed him with a look and went to join Victor on the far side of the room. "Okay, how do you really want to play this?"
His eyebrows rose slightly.
"You and I both know that you are far from destitute," Blair continued in a hushed voice. "If Tea's pressing this issue she either doesn't know or she's going for blood because Todd wouldn't fuck her when she wanted him to."
Victor hissed a laugh at that.
"I know about the Cayman accounts, Victor," Blair reminded him. "And I've got copies of recent statements since you keep forgetting to fix the address information. I know you swiped that money from Mitch Laurence when you first came to town and God knows where he got it all. I also know that those accounts have been used to subsidize The Sun when times were particularly tough so you can quit with the 'I kept this newspaper solvent and successful during a recession' bullshit, too. If I tell everyone at that table about the Cayman accounts then you probably will be destitute by the time the courts are done with you because there is no way the courts will allow you to keep Mitch Laurence's ill-gotten gains. Do you want to risk that?"
"You know, Blair," Victor smiled wistfully. "I really do forget how hot you are when you're taking no prisoners."
She gave him a vaguely bored look.
"What about my house?"
"I promised you the house, I don't go back on my word," she said sharply. "You make sure you come to Jack's birthday because I don't want you conveniently forgetting about that and disappointing him. You come to La Boulie for his party and I'll have Todd hand over the deed then."
"All right," Victor nodded. "Guess I'd better get cracking on changing my account information in the Caymans, too."
"You'd better tell Tea about those accounts, too, if you haven't already. I'm guessing no," she shook her head. "Now maybe we can all get on with our lives."
He shrugged slightly. "Maybe," his voice was far away. "Okay, let's do this." He turned and went back to the table. "Whatever belonged to Todd Manning belongs to Todd Manning," he said. "What do I need to sign to end this?"
"What?!" Tea screeched. She shot an accusatory look at Blair. "What did you do?"
Blair sat down, ignoring the questioning looks from everyone in the room, and waited for the whole mess to be over with. This sort of legal wrangling always set her teeth on edge. It wasn't long before the mediator got everything in order despite Tea's vehement protests. Victor breezed out of the conference room, Tea hissing at him the whole way, and Blair found herself wondering what turn that would take when they got home.
Knowing them, it would take a turn she didn't want to consider for much longer.
She noticed that Todd was watching her, his eyes sharp and hawkish, with a carefully schooled neutral expression on his face. A feeling of dread settled into the pit of her stomach and the only thing she wanted to do was get out of there and get away from everyone.
For his part, Todd noted with some alarm that Blair's demeanor was that of a person who was expecting to get hit. He ought to know, he was well versed in that himself. As a child and as a prisoner there was nothing more frightening than a good moment because that's when the strike came... exactly when you didn't think it would.
"Well, Ms. Cramer," Cybil said warmly. "I'm not sure what you did there but you certainly saved a lot of people a lot of time. For that, at least, I'm grateful. Mr. Manning, we've got some paperwork to finish up and then, I believe our business will be concluded."
"Sure," Todd nodded, not taking his eyes off of Blair.
Her face shifted almost imperceptibly and the haunted expression was mostly gone. She smiled a smile that didn't reach her eyes and nodded at him. "Better go and take care of that then," she said, her tone just a little too encouraging. "My work here is done. I'll see you." She brushed past him and out the door before he could say anything.
"Everything okay?" Cybil asked.
Everything was most assuredly not okay from where Todd stood and all he could do was wonder why. Blair had basically given him everything that had been taken from him in one fell swoop and then ran away as if she was expecting the sky to fall. "Sure," he replied automatically. Cybil was a terrific lawyer but she wasn't a confidant and he needed to figure out what was going on with Blair himself.
He followed her to sign and submit any paperwork that was left and then went downtown to buy Blair an appropriate thank you present. He wondered if he could put a bow on Llantano Mountain and give the whole thing to her.
Blair had done her best to get her mind off of her plummeting mood. Nothing seemed to work. Even going to the Capricorn building and seeing how close her dream home was to being completed hadn't appeased her because it still felt like a million years away.
After several hours she decided she'd take a long bath. If that didn't work, she'd raid the liquor cabinet but she wasn't too fond of the idea of drinking her woes away with a houseful of children. Getting drunk alone also brought back embarrassing memories. No, a bath would be wonderful. She'd really indulge and let herself float away. She got a bottle of cherry blossom scented milk bath and started the water. Then she lit an amber incense stick and waited for the bath to fill, letting the sound of the water combined with the amber and cherry blossom scents to start draining her stress away. After a few minutes, she shed her clothes and turned the water off to prepare to get in.
That's when she heard movement in her bedroom.
None of her kids were that stealthy. They thought they were but there was something ingrained in all of them that left them a little too clumsy or a little too heavy of foot to be truly ninja like. And they all knew never to sneak into her bedroom after the incident where she was almost murdered. They knocked and announced themselves... sometimes too loudly.
Blair reached for the bat that she always kept in the bathroom now and charged out, holding it at the ready.
Todd had absolutely no idea how to react to a stark naked Blair charging at him with a bat in her hands. His mouth hung open and his sex starved eyes took in absolutely everything but the weapon she wielded. Breasts, nipples, that crease where her thigh met her pelvis, those beautiful, enticing curls between her legs.
"Todd!" Blair bellowed. "What are you doing here?!"
"What?" He asked stupidly, eyes darting from her breasts to between her legs and back again.
She swung the bat at him. She wasn't close enough to make contact but it did get his attention.
"What?" He asked again, with a bit more presence. He was still having a hard time keeping his eyes above her neck though.
"What are you doing here?"
"Oh," he turned his head to gesture to her vanity table but still couldn't tear his eyes away. "I wanted to surprise you with those."
Blair saw the bouquet of lilies and rest the bat on her shoulder. "I see." She turned to go back and drain her tub. Clearly her relaxing bath wasn't going to happen. "So much for bath time," she muttered.
Todd's eyes rested on her pert bottom as she stalked away from him. Still so tight you could bounce a quarter off of it. He could picture it bouncing underneath him as he pushed himself into her from behind. His own body responded enthusiastically to the idea... it was already making its pleasure at Blair's naked state known. He adjusted himself just as Blair came back into the room.
She was wearing a bra and panties now, her arms filled with the clothes she was wearing earlier. It didn't abate his desire at all.
Blair dumped her clothes into the hamper in her closet and then threw on leggings and a patterned tunic top. "I appreciate the flowers, Todd, but please don't ever sneak into my room."
"You know, if you want to have your bath, I can wait," Todd offered helpfully. "Or join you."
Blair took the flowers and set them on her dresser before shaking her head and heading out the door.
"Do you always have a bat in your bathroom?" Todd asked.
"I do now," she replied.
"I'm sorry if I scared you," Todd continued.
"I'll get over it."
"I really just wanted to get you something to show my appreciation for earlier today," Todd kept going. "I know flowers aren't much but you've always liked them in the past and I know you love lilies."
She didn't respond.
"I just... you really came through for me Blair. You always do."
She stopped when he said that staring out the French doors of the living room that they were now in. "It's nice to have someone you can count on isn't it? Someone who comes through for you... even when you're not on the best of terms. It really means a lot, doesn't it?"
"Yeah," Todd said warily. There was something in Blair's tone that got his hackles up.
"I bet you can guess who that person is for me," she said sweetly.
Well, it wasn't him, Todd knew that all too well and it was one of his greatest regrets. It was something people had been throwing in his face since his return, too. "Dorian?" He didn't think Dorian had been a very good support for Blair but he figured Blair would defend her aunt as she typically did.
Blair stared at him for a moment then took a deep breath and screamed. "NO ONE!"
Her voice echoed in the room and Todd found himself in an unusual position. He felt like he was standing outside of himself, separated from the moment by a strange distance that kept him from reacting like he might have several years ago... either with disdain or by shooting accusations at Blair to deflect from his own feelings of guilt. He remembered when he had stood in this very room and unleashed a tirade against Blair for not missing him while he was gone. He remembered standing there and telling her in no uncertain terms that he blamed her for his missing years and how she stood there in return and let him unload.
She put him first and it was painfully obvious that no one had ever done the same for her.
So he'd have to step up and do it... he should have done that years ago and he had promised himself that he would do right by her if he ever got the chance.
He turned and shut the doors between the living room and the foyer. He rested one hand on the doors and took a deep breath before facing her again. "Tell me about it."
"What," Blair shrugged. "You want to hear your stupid ex-wife talk about what a sucker she is?"
"Don't..." Todd shook his head. It hurt to hear her refer to herself like that.
"You think I don't know?" She flopped down on the couch and stared up the ceiling. "You think I don't know that's why you called me when Irene shot you? You think I don't know that I'm stupid enough to keep helping you and now that you've got your identity and your money back that all of this courtship bullshit is going to disappear and you'll go back to working eighteen hours a day at The Sun and probably hire Tea to try to get custody of Jack from me? I hand you everything because I'm horrified that you spent eight years being tortured while I didn't even have a clue and now you're going to use my idiotic sympathies against me."
He sat down on the coffee table next to the couch and leaned towards her. "Your heart is one of the best things about you, Blair." He paused. "That and your legs..."
She shot him a cold glare and shot up off the couch. "I'm glad this is so funny to you."
It actually wasn't funny at all. Todd just didn't know how to make her feel better. He couldn't very well deny what she said before because he had used her heart and her willingness to help him against her constantly for years. She would come through for him and he'd used the opportunity to stab her in the back every time.
"My stupid heart," she muttered, her voice breaking slightly, "has only resulted in a series of betrayals so profound I can't even face them... I can't be honest about them. I just shove them aside until the next person tells me they love me. Max said he loved me and cheated on me. Spencer said he loved me and destroyed my entire life and then drugged me and tried to rape me. Kelly said she loved me and left me on the side of the road to die. Dorian said she loved me and treated everything I ever cared about like something that could be thrown away and replaced. Starr said she loved me and then called me a whore. Eli said he loved me... Tomas said he loved me... you said you loved me... everyone says that and then they..." she dissolved into tears. "How can they do those things to me if they love me?" She bent over slightly, reaching for the back of the nearest chair to steady herself but ended up collapsing into it.
Blair's tears were always painful to listen to because they were always real. Blair never cried for show or for sympathy. Her tears came from the deepest part of her that had learned far too long ago that real emotion was something people didn't want to see from her. That whatever was going on inside of her wasn't as important as the facade she wore on the outside.
Todd stood there listening to her cry and realized that for as much torture he had withstood over the past eight years Blair had gone through something very similar. For him, the people hurting him had been enemies... people who had purposefully taken him and hurt him to get something very specific. Blair had been hurt by people who said they loved her, people who were her family, people she cared about.
He wasn't exactly sure which was worse. He could, at least, compartmentalize the damage. Blair had to look at people, to this day, who had hurt her and never actually be able to voice to them what they had done.
He stepped forward and sank into the chair behind her, sliding his arms around her and pressing his face into her back between her shoulder blades. He felt her stiffen at his touch but he tightened his arms around her and didn't pull away or move. Once upon a time, a heartbroken Blair had cried herself to sleep in his arms after he had denied her attempts to soothe her hurts with his body. It had been the night he acknowledged that she was the first woman he had ever had sex with that he actually liked as a person and a friend.
He hadn't taken good care of his friend... his friend who had such an amazingly big heart that she had reached out and befriended a rapist ex-con. Defended him, protected him, made him feel better, made him feel like a person... and as far as things went, he was probably at the top of the list of people who had done her wrong over the years.
She was the love of his life and he had treated her horribly. He was the one who was supposed to protect her and defend her and take care of her and he had failed on all fronts.
He shifted around slightly so that his lips rested against her ear. She was cocooned in his arms and he felt her body relaxing against him. "I'm so sorry," he whispered, tracing the line of her jaw with his fingertip. "I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that."
And it was true. His Blair was a fierce, ferocious woman who was the strongest person he had ever known. Stronger than Viki, even, because Viki had always had a huge support network while Blair had been on her own from the start. When they had found each other they were supposed to have found the person that would stand by them when no one else would.
Blair had said it at the cabin. She thought she was alone in the world but when she met him she knew she wasn't. She had kept her promise to him all of these years... when he had needed her, she had always come through. She had done as much today.
He hadn't kept his promise to her. That was going to change. And he was going to tell her so. He opened his mouth to say exactly that when instead...
"Blair?"
Tea Delgado's voice broke in.
Blair and Todd pulled away from the back of the chair in unison to see Tea standing in the middle of the room staring down at them indignantly.
"I need to talk to you."
Todd decided that maybe he wasn't all that sorry for how he had treated Delgado over the years. She was still an interfering, interrupting, master of awful timing and if she did or said anything to make Blair feel bad, Todd vowed silently to remove his least favorite ex-wife from Dorian's awful mausoleum personally.