Chapter 19: Everything Will Be Alright…Eventually

Ned Ashton watched his daughter, Brooklyn, sleep in her hospital room on 5-East. He knew she needed to rest, and that sleep was a good thing. However, it was still hard for him to trust that every time she went to sleep, she would open her eyes again. She had spent over a week in some unexplained coma and his biggest fear, since she had awoken the prior afternoon, was that it would happen again.

The sound of his cell phone interrupted his thoughts and Ned opened it and answered it quietly.

"Good morning, Ned," Celia greeted him.

Ned hadn't been expecting a call from her, although he knew she and his grandfather were discussing development of some property ELQ had recently purchased in Arizona. If she wanted him to back her up on her windmill idea she was out of luck, he had only gotten halfway through that prospectus.

"Hey Celia! If you need windmill reinforcements, I haven't even finished the prospectus, my daughter was more interesting," Ned said.

"Of course, she was, but she likes windmills so she would probably be in favor. I'm so glad she's doing better, Ned."

"She likes windmills? Ok, well, there you go, you don't even need my help, just tell grandfather that Brooke liked the windmill and wants one and I'm sure he will be all for it."

"I think I'll just wait for you to finish the prospectus and for Alana to crunch some more numbers. I don't want us to rush into this, but I think it's a good idea."

"Did you not like the numbers Dave gave you?" Ned asked referring to David Roberson, the Vice-CFO who was assigned to ELQ-West.

"No, I liked Dave's numbers but if we can make this work in Arizona then I actually think that tract of land out behind the ELQ Quarry would be perfect to do the same thing. But I didn't call you to talk about windmills I was actually wondering if you knew why Clint Buchanan was in town?"

Ned shuddered. "Clint is here?"

"Yes, I was coming up from doing cardio at the gym and we shared an elevator. Remind me again that Grace really loved Kevin and us taking over BE would not be something she would approve of."

"Grace really loved Kevin. So, the elevator ride was that bad?" Ned asked.

"On the experiences with Clint Buchanan scale it probably rated about a five so I guess not. Anyway, I'm sure Brooke is more interesting than this phone call so I will let you go. I'm going to call Cord and see if he knows what Clint is up to. Take care, Ned!"

Celia disconnected before Ned could say anything else. He was left to just close his phone and shake his head.

"Who is Grace?" Brooke asked.

"Oh, you're awake. Grace was your cousin Celia's cousin," Ned said getting up and going to sit on the edge of Brooke's bed.

"Does was mean she isn't alive anymore?"

"Yes, unfortunately it does."

"How did she die?"

"She fell into really cold water. She was trapped there for a long time; when they tried to rewarm her it caused problems with her heart and that killed her."

"Did I ever meet her?" Brooke asked.

"No, sweetheart, you didn't. But even Celia didn't see Grace much during most of your life. She died eight years ago."

"The same time as Baby Charlotte?" Brooklyn asked.

Ned winced. Charlotte had died about a month earlier. He had declined the invitation to Kevin Buchanan's engagement party because he had felt uncomfortable leaving Carly and Michael alone. Carly had taken Charlotte's death hard. "Roughly a month after that," he told his daughter.

He had felt that he owed it to Celia to show up at Grace's Funeral. He had arranged for Carly and Michael to spend the day with his Grandmother and planned to fly in and out on the same day. It was the best he could do. Somehow in a weak moment he had agreed to let Jasper Jacks, who purportedly was Grace's fiancé Kevin Buchanan's best friend, tag along on the ELQ Jet.

Despite his best friend's tragic loss, Jax was focused on winning Brenda back. By the end of the flight Ned had promised to help Jax in his efforts just to get him to shut up. The fact that Jax pronounced Brenda's name as if it had an extra R in it was quite grating, especially after the thousandth time.

"So, you like windmills?" Ned asked.

Brooke Lynn flashed him a puzzled look. "Well, gee, dad, that was random," she said.

"Celia was telling me you liked windmills. She wants ELQ to build a wind farm on the land we just purchased in Arizona."

"When we went to Amsterdam, for Miguel's concert when I was five, I thought they were the coolest thing. I also liked the cows, they have some that look like oreo cookies. They are called Dutch Belted; they come from Switzerland and Austria. The Dutch royals bred them to look pretty and I guess they must have like oreos."

"Well except I don't think there were oreos back then."

"Maybe Nabisco just stole the idea, isn't that like corporate espionage?"

"I suppose if some ancestor of RJ Nabisco worked for the Dutch Royals and they served him oreos and he stole the recipe and then started making the cookies sure. I'm guessing the two things are unrelated," Ned said as the door opened and Brenda stepped into the room.

"Aunt Brenda!" Brooke squealed.

"Hi, sweetheart," Brenda said as she hugged her goddaughter.

"Hi! Did you bring Cooper to visit?" Brooke asked.

"Well, you know, that might be able to be arranged. Do you think I can borrow your dad first though?"

"Only if you promise to bring him back," Brooke said.

"I'll just be out in the hall with Brenda for a few minutes ok?" Ned asked.

"Ok," Brooke said.

XXXXXX

"You look concerned," Ned said once they had stepped out of the room.

"Well Bree is down in the Emergency Department getting IV potassium and phosphorous which I guess shouldn't really surprise me."

Ned wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

"No, I think Monica has the situation under control."

"I meant more from an emotional support standpoint. I wasn't suggesting I was planning to practice medicine without a license or really much of a clue in general."

Brenda laughed nervously. "Yeah, well, we kind of have a problem. Clint Buchanan showed up at my house earlier."

"Celia just called to ask if I knew why he was in town."

"Did you tell her?"

"No, she thinks he's still harping on the oil rights issue. She was going to call Cord to see what he knew."

"Do you think that's a good idea?"

"Honestly, Celia kind of caught me off guard. Plus, before I knew he showed up at your house, I supposed it was possible this was an oil rights issue."

"So, what do we do?" Brenda asked.

"Maybe we should let Cooper stay with Brooke like she wants and then we can deal with Clint. How did you get rid of him anyway?"

"Oh, Bree got sick, so I just went into crisis lockdown mode. Cooper is down in the ED with Bree, and Cruz but I'll bring him upstairs. He doesn't know why Clint showed up. I don't think it's even occurred to him that Clint could be his father."

"He isn't his father!"

"Don't tell me that, Ned, tell Clint! This is going to get ugly, isn't it?"

"I hope not," Ned said.

"Does your mother know yet?"

"No, before the whole Clint situation popped up, I was going to take her to lunch tomorrow. I need to tell Lois too, but probably not at the same time."

"Yeah, Lois and your mom is usually not a good combination," Brenda agreed.

"I also don't think my grandfather knowing before we neutralize Clint is a good combination," Ned said.

"Agreed, I guess I should have figured out how we contact him, but I was just concerned about Bree then."

"Understandable, I can get a current cell number from Cord if we really need it. My guess is if you go home, he will be there. If that's the case call me, and I'll meet you at my house."

"Ok so we have a plan, I guess," Brenda said nervously.

"It will be ok," Ned said and then added, "eventually everything will be ok."

"Everything will be ok in the end. If things aren't ok, it isn't the end?"

"Sounds good, let's just hope the end of this is in sight," Ned said. He pulled Brenda into a hug and held for a moment before releasing her.