Chapter 7:

April 24, 1997

Oakdale, IL

Lakeview Hotel, 12:10 pm

Roger laid on his left side on the queen sized bed in his hotel room, with his cheek streaked with dry tears and reddened eyes as he stared at the wall, when he heard a faint knock on his door.

"Roger, sweetie, it's Lisa," the woman said. "I hope you don't mind, but I brought some food in case you were hungry."

Roger didn't answer.

"Look, darling," Lisa sighed. "I don't know what Bob told you, but I know that you're hurting. I may not know you that well at all, but I know you shouldn't be alone at a time like this. I may be nosey, but I actually happen to be a very good listener for guests to talk to." She waited a while. "And the food is getting cold. Look, if you don't want to tell me your problem, I won't push you at all unless you're ready to talk, sweetie." She was silent for a couple of seconds before she said softly, "I'll just come back later whenever you do feel hungry."

Roger made a sound that was a half-sigh, half-sob, as he lifted himself up from the bed and headed to the door, opening it to Lisa who brought a room service cart with two covered plates, with multiple pitchers on the side for what Roger assumed were beverages of his choice.

Lisa smiled shyly at Roger. "Good to see you're still with us."

Roger's face fell.

"Oh, darling," Lisa said. "I didn't mean it like that. I just-- I thought that you wouldn't answer."

"I wasn't going to," Roger said, his voice slurred softly.

"Well, I'm glad you changed your mind," Lisa said. "Because I was afraid I'd have to eat all this by myself."

"What?" Roger asked, looking to Lisa in surprise.

"I hope you don't mind, but I figured you might need the company during..." Lisa trailed off. "...whatever you're going through."

Roger stared at the elder woman, before nodding. "Please help yourself."

"Excellent," Lisa grinned, as she uncovered the trays. "Now I didn't know what you wanted to order, so I just started off with something simple: Beef sandwiches with potato soup and asparagus sticks."

"That's fine," Roger said, as he sat down in a chair at the table by the window.

"Now I have to say," Lisa said, as she placed a plate in front of Roger. "The hotel serves a really good potato soup, but that's because I got the recipe from Bob's mother, Nancy, who also happens to serve the best apple pie during Thanksgiving."

"Is that so?" Roger asked, grabbing his fork. As he did, he noticed his right hand twitched slightly.

"Oh yeah," Lisa said, not having noticed Roger's hand twitch. "The Hugheses happen to be the most upstanding family here in Oakdale."

Roger nodded. So Dr. Hughes was exactly like Ed Bauer in every way, with his mother Nancy, most likely being Oakdale's version of Ed's mother, the late Bert Bauer.

"I'd like to know more about them," Roger said, his words continuously getting slurred.

"Oh, of course," Lisa said, before explaining her whole history with the Hughes family, having met Bob when they attended the same college before Lisa became pregnant with her son Tommy, forcing them to elope. The Hughes family, consisting of Bob's parents Chris (an attorney who died in 1986) and Nancy, his siblings Donald (an attorney who reminded Roger of Ed's brother Mike, also an attorney, and had long since relocated to California with his wife Mary who he had two children with) and Penny (a writer who now lived in England with her husband Anton and their daughter Amy-Lin), and Bob's paternal grandfather (a farmer, who died in 1976) who lived with the Hughes family, had been appalled in finding out they were married, feeling they were too young, and were forced to accept the marriage when they found out about the pregnancy.

Lisa then went on covering the period where she refused to do any work around the house, using her pregnancy as an excuse, and constantly manipulating the family to get what she wanted. She eventually grew tired of being married to Bob and got involved with a shoe salesman, who later dumped her for being too unsophisticated.

Roger was shocked when he found out that Lisa had turned young Tommy against the Hughes family after she unsuccessfully attempted to reunite with Bob. Tommy had lashed out, blaming his father for breaking up his marriage to his mother, destroying whatever gifts Bob bought him before Lisa decided to leave town with Tommy, who she placed in a military school in California!

Bob had ultimately found his son there, bringing him back to Oakdale, while Lisa went to L.A. in search of her son, before she ended up getting raped which left her nearly catatonic before being found by her ex-husband who decided to bring her home as well.

Roger felt deep sympathy for Lisa, considering that he saw similarities between themselves, along with the fact he was reminded of his greatest mistake of raping Holly.

Lisa smiled at him, saying she had long since recovered to her old self, when she guilted Bob's latest girlfriend about splitting up the family, causing her to leave town. Of course Bob had rebuffed her advances again, later marrying a woman named Kim Sullivan, after having been close friends for a long time. Lisa herself had later married seven times and gotten involved with many men, including Bob's brother Don at one point, but a part of her always regretted losing Bob.

"Well now that I've told you my story, I'd like to hear yours," Lisa said.

Roger didn't say anything. He had been nervous about anyone here in Oakdale asking about his past, fearing they would judge him just like the people of Springfield.

Lisa noticed his face. "That is, if you want to, darling. I'm not pushing."

"It's alright," Roger slurred, deciding that he would be truly honest for once in his life. "But I have to warn you, it doesn't paint a pretty picture for me."

"Oh, please," Lisa smiled. "I doubt that, darling. Besides my story is not exactly the pretty picture for me, either."

Both of them laughed about it, before Roger turned serious and decided to tell Lisa his story.

As they ate, Roger disclosed to her his past, starting with having met the love of his life, Holly, while working for her father, their complicated past, the rape, the trial, faking his death when Holly shot him point blank, going on the run with Holly in Santo Domingo, his recruitment by the CIA, which led to his return to Springfield, and his subsequent reveal at his daughter Blake's wedding to Phillip Spaulding after getting shot by the groom's father Alan, who Roger had blackmailed into faking his death and now had been setting up several accidents for Blake before threatening Roger otherwise a bomb would go off, killing everyone inside the church.

He saw Lisa staring at him in surprise and shock, but she didn't say anything as he continued to recount his tense reunions with both Holly and Blake, before setting up a trap for Alan Spaulding, who went to prison subsequently after before revealing to his son Phillip that his ex-fiancee Beth Raines was still alive, with Roger scheming to help save Blake's marriage to Phillip. He told her of all his schemes he had made in Springfield, including his unintentional role in the Fifth Street Fire, his feuding with the Lewis family, and his constant battle over Spaulding.

He also told Lisa of how he and Holly had come to an understanding over the rape in Acapulco, with a remorseful Roger saying he was a changed man and Holly forgiving him, before his wife Alex and Holly's fiance Ross arrived and revealed that Alex had hired Holly to seduce Roger to prove his loyalty to Alex.

Roger explained the many obstacles that he and Holly had encountered, including her involvement with Daniel St. John who had murdered the woman he had previously been having an affair with, followed by her sister, who Roger had brought to town to break up Holly and Daniel, the time where Holly was taken hostage with Michelle Bauer at the cliff house by Davis, a former disgruntled pal of Roger's from his time in the CIA, which led to Holly's rescue and subsequently making love to Roger for the first time since the rape, and the time where Roger had been shot by Billy Lewis, having been nursed back to health by Holly and Eve Guthrie.

Then Roger explained how his obsession with Spaulding ultimately led Holly to cheat on him with another man, who she then married, before Roger himself returned to his old self, a user and abuser of women, when he had married Ross' daughter Dinah to get back at him for marrying Blake, and to get to her trust fund, before she took up with his long-lost son, who plotted with her to gaslight him and have him sent to a psychiatric hospital.

As he finished by stating the circumstances that brought him here to Oakdale causing him to leave his family, he saw Lisa look at him and feared her reaction to his past.

"Wow," Lisa said softly. "That is quite the story."

"Yeah," Roger said, looking down.

"You've really messed up big time, darling," Lisa observed.

"I have," Roger said, nodding. "And now, here I am paying for it in spades."

"Listen, darling," Lisa sighed, grabbing his left hand gently. "We both have made mistakes in the past, but we can't allow that to influence our lives directly and take up all the time we have left here on this earth. Life, being as short as it is, is much too valuable to do so."

Roger nodded silently, while Lisa looked down and gasped in shock. Roger followed her gaze and saw his right hand twitching uncontrollably, with the fork. He grabbed his right hand with the other, causing it to stop.

Before she could say anything, there was a knock at Roger's door, causing both of them to look up in surprise.

"I'll get that," Lisa said, as she stood up to open the door.

When she did, Roger's heart jumped to his throat when he saw Holly, Ross and Blake standing outside his room.

"Can I help you?" Lisa asked gently.

Holly was about to respond until she saw him.

"Roger," she said in shock.

Author's Notes: Okay, here is a much more tweaked version of this chapter than the previous ones.

I wasn't very satisfied with the other version, finding it very long and having a few grammar errors here and there, so I decided to do a recut.

To fans of the show As the World Turns, I really don't know what types of food that Nancy Hughes serves, so I just figured she made a good potato soup and apple pie. If you do know, please let me know in the comments below.

Next time, Roger's family confronts him in Oakdale. Will he reveal his diagnosis to them at long last?

Find out tomorrow in the next chapter of "Through Thick and Thin."