Chapter 37

On Saturday morning, at 8:15, Neal made his way downstairs, surprised to find his son sitting at the kitchen table staring into a bowl of soggy Cheerios. He'd been hoping to have the chance to talk to Liam before he took off to teach his Saturday morning class at the June Ellington School of Art, although he was still struggling with what he could possibly say to him to explain away his outlandish behavior from the previous day.

His little misadventure at the hospital and its aftermath had left him exhausted and, after Sara had gone up to bed and left him alone with his bottle, he'd only needed a couple of more gulps before he'd willingly followed suit. One of the things Sara had been adamant about was that he sleep in their bed every night and Neal had been relieved to find her waiting for him when he'd finally made it upstairs, dragging his feet. She'd insisted on giving him a back rub which had only intensified the feeling of lethargy brought on by the alcohol and Neal had drifted off to sleep within minutes, his wife's warm, soft hands working at untangling those tight knots in his back and shoulders.

Unbeknownst to him, Sara had lay there for a long time, watching him sleep, running her hands through his hair and thinking about their mission to intervene and bring Neal back to the fold. Although he'd been physically present since Hope's accident, emotionally, he'd been missing in action for weeks now; she missed his steadfast presence and she longed for his strength, his laughter, the unrelenting teasing, the warmth, the intimacy. Plotting to get Neal to agree to seek help seemed wrong but after talking to Peter and Elizabeth, she'd realized they needed to all sit in the same room and come up with a common strategy to deal with the situation. She'd finally drifted off to sleep, much too late and Neal had had to coax her to get up and jump in the shower before making his way downstairs.

'Good morning!' Neal called out as he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat across from his son. 'How come you're up so early on a Saturday?'

Liam's droopy eyes went from his bowl to his dad's face as he prepared to tell him a little white lie. 'Mom's taking me shopping for… clothes' he said, hesitating.

Neal nodded in understanding. 'I'm glad you're up. I was hoping I'd get the chance to talk to you. I wanted to apologize for what happened at the hospital yesterday' Neal said, sounding like the composed, level-headed man he used to be.

Liam shrugged, trying to make light of things. His dad had always been so strong and dependable, the one person he could always count on; seeing him embarrass himself in front of everyone, including Cody, had been difficult, there was no doubt about it.

'Liam, I was drunk and my behavior was… inexcusable. I saw how upset you were' Neal said as he sipped his coffee.

Liam remained quiet, his eyes going from his dad's face back to his bowl of cereal.

'There's no excuse for it…' Neal continued as he searched for the right words - he, of silver tongue fame who could usually convince anyone of practically anything. 'I'm… having a hard time with… I'm drinking too much and your mom and I… well, we had a talk about it last night and I'm going to make some changes so that nothing like that ever happens again.'

'Dad, I just want you to feel… better' Liam murmured. 'I know you've been upset since Hope's accident but she's getting better now and…'

'You're right' Neal interrupted. 'She is and… I'm going to cut down on the drinking so that I can be there for her… and for you…'

Suddenly, Neal's voice became shaky and he stopped talking; the last thing he wanted from his son was pity and he realized he was on the verge of sounding maudlin. He coughed and stood to put his coffee cup in the sink before turning to face his son, his composure returning.

'I'm going to find a way to make up for ruining your birthday, I promise' he said.

'You didn't ruin it, Dad.'

'Yes, I did. I made everyone uncomfortable and I know how important it was for you to have Cody there to celebrate' Neal said, leaning on the counter. 'I promise I'll apologize to him, first chance I get.'

Liam returned to his cereal which was now unbearably soggy and he pushed his bowl aside as he stood to face his dad.

'Dad' he said as he stood face to face with the man he so admired. 'Don't worry about it. I love you. That's never gonna change.'

Neal felt a huge lump in his throat. He didn't feel worthy of such unconditional love but he smiled at his son and reached out to give him a hug.

'I love you too, Buddy. So much' he managed to say.

WCWCWC

By the time Sara and Liam arrived in Brooklyn, Mozzie was already there, sipping on a glass of red wine, despite the early hour. Elizabeth had made coffee and had set out some muffins and scones on the kitchen counter as they waited for everyone to arrive. Caitlin had been dropped off in New Rochelle, to be with Linda and they were both on standby, waiting to participate in the discussion by phone when all the guests had arrived.

'How are you feeling?' El asked as she hugged her best friend.

'Like a traitor' Sara responded without hesitation.

Elizabeth gave her a sad smile and invited her into the living room as Peter gave Liam a fortifying pat on the back and took a seat next to his nephew on the couch.

'Cameron called' El said, as she handed Sara a cup of coffee. 'He's on his way.'

'And Linda and Caitlin are waiting for us to call when Marion gets here' Sara added, wringing her hands.

'How did it go last night after I left?' Peter asked.

'We had a talk. Neal told me about the incident with the police' she said to Peter as he nodded, relieved.

Liam, Mozzie and Elizabeth looked on puzzled as Peter shrugged; at least, he wasn't going to have to be the one to tell Sara about the unfortunate incident.

'He came to bed, like I asked him to and he slept well.'

'I guess you can't say the same, huh?' El asked as she ran her hand down Sara's back.

'I just hate going behind his back. He'd be so humiliated to know we're all sitting around here, dissecting his every move' Sara admitted.

Peter piped up. 'Sara, we can't let this go on any longer. He's made promises to me - and to you - that he hasn't been able to keep and after yesterday… well, he's in free fall and it's just a question of time before something terrible happens.'

There was a gentle knock on the door and Cameron peeked in, waving to everyone as he took a seat with the group.

'How's Hope this morning?' Sara asked anxiously.

'Not bad' he said as he gratefully took a cup of coffee from El's hands. 'She had a nightmare… I was glad I stayed over.'

'Has she spoken yet?' Elizabeth asked.

'No. Not since yesterday afternoon' he admitted sadly.

There was another, more decisive knock on the door and Peter rose to see who it was - not that there was much doubt. A pleasant woman with a warm smile stood with her hand outstretched.

'Hi, you must be Peter. I'm Marion Birch.'

WCWCWC

Neal stood at the cash register in the liquor store on Webster Avenue with his purchases - a brand new flask and a bottle of fine scotch. It was 9:38 in the morning and he was most likely their first customer of the day - considering they'd only opened at 9:30. The young man behind the cash yawned, seemingly unperturbed that a man of Neal's stature was making such purchases at this hour of the day - surely he'd seen worse, the ex-con rationalized.

Neal set up at the counter by the front door of the store and filled his new flask with the amber liquid before placing the bottle in the briefcase he'd brought along for just this purpose. He reasoned that he wasn't really breaking his promise to Sara. After all, he'd taken the train and not the car and he only intended to have enough to drink so he wouldn't be shaking too severely as he taught his class. He looked around to see if the clerk was paying him any mind and, satisfied that no one was looking, he took a couple of fortifying gulps before stashing the flask in his coat pocket and heading out and down the block towards his beloved art school.

WCWCWC

'Can you hear us?' Marion asked as Peter placed the phone on the coffee table.

'Loud and clear' came Linda's soft voice. 'Caitlin is right beside me.'

Marion uncapped her pen and placed the writing pad on her lap as she looked around the room and smiled at everyone.

'I know this is an uncomfortable situation for all of you but I want to remind you that you're here for one reason and one reason alone. Because you all love Neal and you want what's best for him' she began as everyone nodded.

'The first thing I'd like to do is give each of you a chance to tell us what you've observed about Neal's behavior these past few weeks. When someone starts to drink excessively, it becomes the most important thing in their life and they go to great lengths to keep people from finding out just how dependent they've become on alcohol. In order to get a full picture of Neal's situation, I'd like to go around and have everyone share your observations, when you first started to notice he was drinking more, when you've witnessed or suspected him of being inebriated. I want to make sure there are no secrets in this room because that will only serve to drive a wedge between us and we won't be able to be effective in our intervention. A person who has become dependent on alcohol will play one person against another in order to cover up what they're doing and we can't have that. Who would like to start?' she asked as she looked around at the group.

Everyone seemed uncomfortable at what they perceived as a betrayal of Neal - despite the very reasonable case Marion had just made.

'I'll go first' Peter said as he took a deep breath. 'My first inkling something wasn't right was a couple of weeks ago. Sara had told El that she was worried Neal was drinking a lot at bedtime but I hadn't really seen it for myself, well except for that night that we had dinner at your place and he got pretty tipsy but… well, who doesn't do that from time to time?' he said.

'But a few weeks ago, Neal came into the gallery with a couple of cups of coffee and when I took a sip, it was obvious the coffee had been spiked' he explained as all eyes and ears turned towards him. 'He'd given me the wrong cup and I confronted him about drinking during the day but… well, you know Neal, he put on that big, bright smile of his and told me to relax, that it was all under control and that he'd just added a little scotch to his coffee because he'd had too much to drink the night before and he was feeling shaky.'

Everyone listened as Peter continued. 'Hum…it didn't feel right at the time but I didn't push it… I should have…'

Marion looked at the worried faces around the room. 'I want to reiterate that none of you did anything wrong. You love Neal and of course you want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Guilt has no room here, everyone has done the best they can.'

'Well…' Peter continued as he recounted the events. '… I started to poke around the gallery and I found a bottle hidden in the bathroom, under the sink. I was just wrapping my head around that when I got a call from Neal. He was at the police station and he'd been pulled over for running a red light. Turns out he'd been drinking and he had an open bottle of booze in the back seat of his car. They ran a sobriety test and he just… well, he squeaked by just under the legal limit.'

Elizabeth, Liam and Cameron exchanged worried glances; they were hearing this for the first time.

'I read him the riot act. He promised me he'd quit and he begged me not to tell Sara what had happened, said it would destroy her… and… well, I let him convince me, despite my better judgement. I told him that if he didn't straighten out, I would have to tell her but… I just couldn't bring myself to do it…'

Marion's eyes went to Sara, who was sitting on the edge of the couch.

'He confessed about it, last night' she said, her voice quiet. 'Said he felt guilty for lying to me… it was the day I met with the prosecutor and he knew I'd been counting on him to be there for me.'

'Linda? Caitlin? What about you?' Marion asked, looking down at the phone.

The room grew even quieter as everyone leaned in to hear Linda's voice, weak and low on the other end of the line.

'I've known for a while too. I caught him drinking when he thought I was sleeping. I tried to confront him about it although as you all know, I've had my own, long struggle with alcohol and drugs. He didn't waste any time reminding me of that but… well, I took it for what it was, just his way of justifying what he was doing. Of course, he refused to talk about it and I decided I needed to cut him some slack if I didn't want him to pull away from me for good. I tried to bring it up a couple of more times, relating it to myself and letting him know I wasn't judging him but… anyway, he wasn't ready to hear it and he hasn't been to see me in over a week now. I don't think he wants me to see him like that…or to have to put up with any of my questions.'

Caitlin's younger, more vibrant voice came on the line. 'I've heard him pretty well every night, roaming around downstairs and a couple of times, I went down and just covered him up with a blanket' she said, her voice sad. 'When I was little, I used to do that for my mom when she passed out…'

They could all hear her breathing quicken and her voice continued, strained. 'Mr. C… well, he's such a wonderful person. I don't want him to end up like my mom…'

Sara wiped a tear as she heard her foster daughter's tense voice; she and Neal had been united in helping the teen make a better life for herself and her heart broke as she heard Caitlin's concerns for her foster dad.

'Mozzie?' Marion asked the older man who'd been sitting there, slowly sipping his wine. 'Do you have anything you want to say?'

He scoffed and held up his glass of wine as if in a toast. 'I'm not much of a role model' he admitted. 'Neal's never been on my case about my love affair with fine wine but… well, I'm here because he's on a collision course and I want to be able to help…'

Marion's eyes moved to Liam and Cameron who hadn't yet said a word.

'Liam, you've being awfully quiet' Marion said as she turned towards the young man.

TBC