Todd remembered Lois' name because it was too much trouble to try to come up with a bunch of L-names to accidentally on purpose get wrong. She'd been ensconced at Llanfair for so long Todd wondered if she had a crypt in the basement she retired to every night.
"I'm here to see Viki," he said curtly before sweeping past her when she opened the door.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Manning," Lois was always formal even as she was trying to keep up with him. "She's having dinner with guests…"
"Like I care," Todd tossed over his shoulder.
Lois fell back. What was she going to do, wrestle him to the ground? Todd headed into the dining room to rudely interrupt his sister's dinner party.
"We need to talk," he announced as he stormed in.
Viki's dinner guests made the simmering anger in his gut amp up several notches.
Todd remembered Rex Balson. He hadn't changed all that much. His hair still looked like he was trying to fit into the late-80's Madchester scene and he still had that bizarre twitchy quality that suggested a close relationship with cocaine. His expression was insolent and smug. Todd hadn't liked Rex from what little he had seen of him before he was taken away and he liked him even less now.
Since Rex was present it was easy to identify the other two. The woman with the choppy haircut and a pound of lipgloss on her mouth had to be Gigi and that left the sullen looking red-head sitting between them who could only be Shane.
So this was the family that Viki had chosen over Jack. Todd studied each in turn.
"Todd," Viki exclaimed. "I'm currently entertaining guests, if you don't mind."
"Not at all," Todd pulled out a chair and sat down. "I'll wait."
True to form, Viki couldn't keep herself from making introductions. When she introduced Shane, Todd spoke up. "I'm sorry for what Jack did to you." Todd didn't know Gigi from a hole in the ground and he didn't give two shits about Rex Balsom but his parents weren't the kid's fault. And he was sorry for what Jack did. Todd had too much experience as both a bully and what the ramifications of that were for him to not be unmoved by it being carried on in his own family.
Shane flushed and mumbled something incoherent. Rex twitched even harder, if that were possible.
"But?" Rex demanded.
Todd blinked at him. "But what?"
"You're sorry about what your psycho son did but…" Rex gestured that Todd had more to say. "Aren't you going to start making excuses for him now?"
Todd's eyes flickered to Viki when Rex referred to Jack as a psycho. He saw her eyes train steadily on her cup of coffee and he didn't like that one bit.
"I'm not offering any excuses," Todd said benignly. "What Jack did was wrong. That's all. I'm expressing my condolences regarding his behavior." Balsom wanted to fight, that was obvious. Todd imagined that Rex was eager to prove himself the better man against Jack's father.
Todd's opinion of Rex sunk further if that were possible. Todd had waged war with young bucks his whole life. He was always the alpha and, right now, Rex wasn't even waging the right kind of war.
Besides, Todd was hunting bigger game.
"Would you like more coffee?" Viki offered the younger couple.
"Actually," Gigi side-eyed Todd, his calm demeanor clearly unnerving her. "We have an early flight out tomorrow."
"I'm going to miss all of you," Viki bubbled sweetly. "But I'm so proud of you, Shane. Getting into that art school is a wonderful achievement."
"Thanks," he murmured.
"I think you'll all just love London," Viki continued as they stood up and exchanged hugs.
Todd felt vaguely sick to his stomach at the lovefest. "Hey," he directed his comment to Shane again.
Everyone froze.
"Look them in the eye and smile when you meet them," he told him.
"Meet who?"
"Anyone at this new school of yours. Look them in the eye and smile."
"Hey, stay out of our son's business, Manning!" Rex exclaimed.
"I'm sure Todd's just trying to help," Viki eyed her brother.
Todd shrugged as if none of it mattered. "I know what I'm talking about." At the very least, he left Gigi and Shane not knowing exactly what to make of him. Rex could go pound rocks for all he cared but Todd still enjoyed pushing buttons, he just didn't go about it the way he used to. If the kid listened to his advice, he'd be better off.
"That was very rude, Todd," Viki admonished him when she returned after bidding the Morasco-Balsoms farewell.
"Was it?" Todd asked. "Now ask me if I care."
"Gigi, Rex and Shane are moving to London tomorrow and I will miss them very much," Viki continued.
"Do you think their being gone will give you more time to get to know your nephew?" Todd interrupted.
That gave Viki some pause. "What?"
"I'm actually glad they were here," he continued. "I wanted to get a good look at the family you threw Jack over for."
"I did no such thing!"
"Liar."
If the accusation was surprising, the low snarl Todd delivered it in was even more so. Viki's face was a mixture of expressions, none of them particularly good.
"I talked with Jack for a long time today," Todd said. "I asked him to tell me about the bullying, what led up to it, why he did it, all that stuff. He had a lot to say… hell, it seemed like he couldn't keep it in once he got going."
"Well, I'm glad that he chose to confide in you."
"Do you think Jack's a psycho?"
Viki blinked in shock. "Of course not, why would you even say such a thing?"
"Balsom called him a psycho about ten minutes ago and you said nothing."
Viki didn't reply although her expression noted some regret.
"What's the saying about good men doing nothing?" Todd asked. "Does it count for good women, too? Rex stood there and called Jack a psycho and you did nothing. You said nothing. You're Jack's aunt and his god-mother. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"Do I get to tell my side of the story?"
"I don't know, Viki," Todd spat out. "Because I'm wondering how any story you tell me explains why anyone else in this town took precedence over Jack when he was struggling so much he resorted to bullying to feel any kind of control over his life. Tell me that you didn't excuse Marcie McBain for kidnapping Sam."
"It's not really as simple as that, Todd."
"I'm sure there's a complicated reason for all of this," Todd nodded. "You did at least give her one of your patented Viki lectures, right? Did you at least tell her she was wrong? Because, God knows, every time I took Starr from Blair, you'd do nothing but yammer to me about right and wrong until I was ready to rip my ears off! Did you do anything like that to McBain? Tell her she was wrong? Tell her to bring Sam back to Llanview and hand him over?"
"I tried to talk her down at the diner."
"At the diner."
Jack hadn't really understood the whole situation with the infamous diner and, thus, his explanation had a few holes in it. From what Todd could glean from his son, Viki had gone on vacation in Texas and let everyone believe she was actually in Paris, France. When life caught up in the form of Marcie McBain with young Sam, somehow, everyone Viki had met in this diner wound up following her back to Llanview in some manner.
And then Carlotta's diner burned down and was rebuilt to look like the diner in Texas.
Todd had always thought that Llanview was full of idiots but this really took the cake.
"I don't even know what the deal with this diner is, Viki, we'll get back to that. Did you succeed in talking this idiot down at the diner?"
"No," Viki replied. "Her husband did that."
"And you still didn't do anything like step up and press charges."
"I didn't feel it was necessary."
"But when Jack messes up by bullying Shane… you… what? Did you go and try to talk to him? Did you try to talk him down?"
"Things were very complicated then, Todd."
"How?" Todd demanded. He could feel his blood pressure rising. He could feel his rage seeping into every cell of his body. "Tell me what was so damn complicated that you couldn't help my son!"
Viki had long realized that this was an argument she was unlikely to win. What troubled her the most was the level of hurt both in Todd's expression and voice. She was at a loss for how to explain the situation because she knew that no matter what she said, things would only get worse. "You have to understand that I was married at the time."
"So?"
"Well, Charlie believed that he was Rex' father… which made him Shane's grandfather. As you can understand that made things a little awkward."
Todd stared at her. It was everything he could do to keep from screaming any number of the profanities that were going through his head at that moment. "Why are you talking in the past tense? And who the hell is this Charlie person I keep hearing about?!"
"Well, it turned out he wasn't Rex' father after all," Viki began just as a rough voice echoed from the hallway.
"Who the hell is talking about Charlie Banks?"
A few moments later, Clint was wheeled into the room by Nigel. "Why is anyone talking about that philandering fool?" He saw Todd and grumbled a grudging greeting. "Oh. Manning."
"Clint." Todd eyed Viki and then looked at Clint again. "Charlie Banks is a philanderer?"
Viki's entire body tensed so Todd figured it was true. After all, he'd been back for months now and hadn't seen hide nor hair of Viki's most recent husband.
"You might as well tell him," Clint said gruffly. When Viki didn't seem inclined to do so, Clint decided to do it himself. "Charlie didn't deserve Viki and he proved it by cheating on her."
"Who would cheat on Viki?" Todd asked, surprised out of his anger for the moment by the sheer surprise of someone not being faithful to his sister.
Clint looked mildly uncomfortable at that question. "Charlie was something of a soft touch," he explained. "Echo DiSavoy is a manipulative bitch and took advantage of him in every conceivable way."
"Who the hell is Echo DiSavoy?"
"A black hole of misery," Clint replied. "An absolutely terrible woman. A mistake I made years ago and, unfortunately, she tried to milk that mistake and when that didn't work she turned it all onto Charlie. The fool fell for everything she fed him."
Viki looked less than pleased. "Do we really have to do this?"
Todd silenced her with a look. "I think we do," he nodded. "I think I need to know what the hell happened in your life that you would continue to treat Jack as an afterthought." Todd focused on Clint again. "What happened?"
"Echo came into town and tried to sell everyone on the fact that she was Balsom's mother," Clint replied. "Which should have tipped everyone off right then and there. Who in their right mind would claim him anyway?"
Todd really hated agreeing with Clint given how he acted during Blair's confessions about Asa but he had to do it. He couldn't imagine willingly claiming Balsom as a blood relative and he barely knew the guy.
"When she couldn't get me to claim him she said she'd tell Charlie he was Balsom's father. Charlie, desperate fool that he was, thought it was wonderful but Echo used that to not only manipulate her way into the carriage house but into this house as well because Charlie couldn't stand the idea of his long lost baby mama out in the cold or whatever," Clint's disgust was obvious. "That woman burned every bridge she ever had to the ground… including Charlie and Balsom as it turned out… but he wasn't going to listen to anyone."
"That's enough!" Viki said at last. "What's done is done. Charlie is gone and the marriage is over, can we not talk about it?"
"Let me get this straight," Todd said softly as he began to sort through all the information. "You were married to a guy who thought he might have been Rex' father but wasn't and then he cheated on you and your marriage is over anyway… and because he thought he was Balsom's father for about five minutes, you made yourself unavailable to Jack when he was going through something that resulted in him becoming Shane's bully in the first place? What about before? What about when Powell and Rebecca shoved him in a closet and told him if he said anything they'd kill Sam? Where were you during that? Who were you married to then? What about when Jack thought Blair was dead? What about after the mess with Victor and Marty? What kept you from being there for him during all of those things? Another husband of the week? Or did you just not give a fuck about my son?!"
A heavy silence settled between them all.
To her credit, Viki looked distressed at the litany of problems Jack had been through Todd had just rattled off. Todd hadn't even covered all of what Jack had told him. The problem was that looking distressed now didn't fix anything.
"You know what? Nevermind," Todd growled and swept out of the room and out the front door, slamming it so hard that the windows rattled. He hoped he woke up any sleeping kids just for the sake of making everyone in the house frustrated and miserable.
It was how he felt so everyone else should feel the same.
I have a sister, her name is Viki, I trust her above all others.
Todd had held into that mantra for years and the situation he found himself in made him ill. He trusted Viki completely. When he had made a mess of his life, she was always the one he found he could turn to. When he hurt Blair, or when Blair hurt him, Viki was the voice of reason telling him to stop and think and not do anything hasty.
Was he wrong in thinking that Viki would offer that same solid, patient presence is his son's life? Viki had been a place of solace and refuge for Starr when she was young… what had happened with Jack? Was it the fact that he had been present for Starr and when he and Blair fought or separated he took Starr to Viki where he could get advice? Jack hadn't been bounced between his parents the way Starr had… in fact, Todd had shot himself in the foot completely when he took Jack from Blair as a newborn because after that, Blair had an ace in the hole if he ever tried to wrest custody of the kids from her again.
Blair had made it a point to keep Viki in Starr's life after she was born while he was believed dead… that's how he had met Starr in the first place. Perhaps Blair had rethought Viki's place in the life of their kids after the constant battles for Starr and Viki's allegiance in those battles.
Still, Viki was family. She was his sister. She was Jack's aunt and his godmother. Shouldn't she have made some effort?
Did a person have to be squatting on her very property in order for her to make an effort?
It was all too much. Thoughts bounced around Todd's head in a chaotic jumble and before he knew it, he found himself at Rodi's.
The decor hadn't changed much since he had been taken. Every time Todd walked in, he wished that Rodi's was still that same wonderful dive it was during his college days. At least the jukebox was still there. Pool tables were in the middle of the floor now as opposed to off to the side where you could engage in some flirting or cop a feel without being center stage.
He missed the dingy old wreck that Rodi's used to be. He missed that one floorboard that sank on the way to the john. He missed how the place always had a vague whiff of stale vomit in the corners. He missed the crunch of peanut shells on the floor. Right now, Todd hated everything that wasn't what it used to be.
Todd hated everything. Period.
Except Blair. He didn't hate Blair.
He didn't hate his kids either. Or Sam or Hope.
But he hated everything else. And there was only one thing to do when you hated everything.
Drink.
He stomped over to the bar, pulled out a handful of bills and threw them on the table.
"Scotch," he growled at the bartender. "And keep them coming."
