The Bridge/CH 15

Claire Meade knew she had been pacing for almost a half hour, now. She looked down at the Tesoro watch Daniel had given her for Mother's Day.

He was such a sweet son, most of the time, when he wasn't too wrapped up in chasing all his women, that is... Thank goodness he had finally met that nice Betty! She smiled, remembering how happy he had seemed, giving her the gift.

He had been so proud of her, staying sober since the beginning of the year this time.

At the time, she and Daniel had felt quite alone in the world. Bradford, of course, had been at work; some things never changed. Even the death of his son (or so he and Claire had thought, at the time) and his mistress didn't seem to keep him at home much anymore.

Claire was looking at the cabinet where her favorite brandy used to be waiting for her. Now, of course, it was just an empty cabinet.

She went through her ritual of opening the door and was surprised to see Consuela had forgotten not to re-stock this time.

She looked around, trying to calm her swirling thoughts. Why had she let Bradford get arrested? Who could she call?

Daniel was pacing up and down, trying to calm himself. What the hell had he been thinking, anyway? Did he really think that just because Betty was relatively young and inexperienced, the girl couldn't get him excited?

Hell, he should have learned his lesson getting arrested. But, then again, Daniel Meade had never been known for learning his lessons easily.

He looked out the window of his bathroom to see the crowd of paparazzi had seemingly all dispersed.

He came rushing out, "Hey, Betty! The press is all gone! There must have been something else exciting happening to get them all to leave!"

Betty nodded, her eyes glued to the television, and pointed,"Yes, there's someone on the Manhattan Bridge right now. She looks like she's thinking about jumping. Daniel! Oh! Uh...you're not dressed!"

He had rushed out without thinking, still just wearing a towel around his waist. He looked down, suddenly. Usually Daniel wouldn't have been fazed by his lack of clothing, but from Betty's reaction, he felt surprisingly embarrassed.

He started backing towards the bathroom, then stopped abruptly, "Oh, yeah, sorry, Betty I...wait! That's my mom on the bridge!"

His eyes widened, as he saw, on the news feed, his mother, looking distraught, and holding a bottle of brandy tightly, as she tearfully peered over the edge.

Daniel's heart stopped in his chest. He knew he should have had her admitted back to rehab when she started spouting off crazy stories about watching Fey Sommers car burn!

Betty looked at him in panic,"Oh, my God, Daniel! Quick, get dressed, I'll call your car. We've got to get you down there. I'll call Alexis back for you. Hurrry up! You two have got to go talk some sense into her!"

Daniel nodded, obviously in shock, and rushed to get dressed. A few minutes later, he came out, wearing jeans and a leather jacket over one of his old Harvard tees.

Betty looked at him, handing him his cell phone. "Alexis is on the line. I just got your mom's voice mail a minute ago. Your sister is meeting us at the bridge."

He pulled on his jacket, as he and Betty headed out his door, and to the elevator, and spoke to his sister, "Alexis? Yeah, we're on our way there. Have you spoken to her today?"

"No, what did you say to her?"

"I didn't say anything! She sounded like she must have been drinking again, though. She claimed SHE was the one who killed Fey!"

"What? Are you serious? Daniel! When were you going to tell me this?"

"Tonight! I was just getting ready to call you when Betty turned on the news and saw her. You don't think she'll really jump, do you?"

"How the hell do I know? I haven't even seen her for two years. All I know is, I leave you to deal with her for a little while and she's ready to commit suicide and claims she's murdered somebody!"

"Don't start, Alex! I didn't cause this mess. I'm not the one who disappeared for two years, pretending to be dead and ripping the woman's heart out!"

Betty looked at him, as they got into the car, "Daniel! None of this is going to solve anything. You two have got to think of a way to appeal to your mother together, to convince her how much you both love her and how much she has to live for right now. So both of you, knock off the fighting! You're not ten years old!"

Daniel nodded, and was silent for a minute, Alexis took a breath, "I heard your girlfriend. She's quite the force of nature for a little thing, isn't she? So, I guess maybe she's right, Danny. We probably should at least pretend to get along when we talk to mom."

"Yeah. Fine. Okay, we'll...both tell her how much we love her and how much she means to us. I know you don't want to hear it, but...Dad needs her, too right now.

That might not be on your agenda, but they've been married for thirty-eight years, so she might be a little upset over you getting her husband arrested, you know!"

"I'm well aware of that. You don't think I've already thought that me showing up is what sent her over the edge, Daniel?"

Daniel felt guilty, blaming Alexis, thinking that in fact, it was very likely his talk with Claire earlier that had upset his mother to the point of contemplating suicide.

As they rode in the car, Betty grabbed his hand and squeezed it, looking up at him, "Daniel, it's going to be okay. You and Alexis are going to solve this. Maybe your mother's just having a delayed reaction to all the stress of everything and with her drinking again, it's made everything seem even more unmanageable to her."

He nodded, looking ahead quietly, "You're probably right, Betty. I just...hope we're not too late. She didn't call either of us and she's not picking up her phone. If she wanted to be stopped...she would have reached out to us, you know?"

Betty pulled him to her into one of her hugs. She could feel his tension in the way he clung to her for support. He didn't let go for several minutes. He finally pulled away, reluctantly.

She looked up at him and saw him wiping at his eyes. "Are you okay?" He nodded, turning away. "Mmhmm. I'm good."

The car arrived, and pulled to the side of the road, and let them off in front of the archway. They saw Alexis' car pulling up just behind them as she rushed out, looking ahead to the bridge frantically.

She frowned at the news cameras and small crowd that had gathered, along with emergency response.

"We need to see if we can get rid of as much of that crowd as possible so we can get up there...oh my God, Daniel, look! There she is!" She pointed at Claire, who looked as if she was leaning over precariously, waving the bottle wildly in the air.

Betty ran over to talk to the film crew and several of the curious onlookers, "Excuse me, but...if you allow her family access to speak to her privately so they can try and get through to her now, I can guarantee you get an exclusive interview afterwards.

But first, we all need this to have a positive outcome and that may not happen if her children can't get to her."

Alexis looked on in awe, and turned to Daniel, "She's something else, that one. You'd better not screw this one up, Danny!"

He smiled slightly, and nodded, "I'll try not to." Betty ran up to them, "Okay, you've got some space. The emergency workers said for you two to go and talk to her now. They'll back off. She hasn't spoken to any of them, anyway. She seems really out of it."

Daniel leaned down and kissed Betty lightly on the cheek, and squeezed her hand, "Thanks, Betty. You're amazing, babe."

"Good luck both of you."

Daniel led Alexis up to the entrance to the walkway and walked out further towards the overhang where they saw their mother.

Alexis' usual confident manner seemed to crumble seeing her mother up on the bridge. She teared up, "Daniel...she looks so out of it! What if we can't reason with her? Maybe we should let the police back here, just in case."

"No, we have to do this, Alexis! She's our mother. No one else can talk to her. This is our family."

"I know. I'm just scared. God, I should have just...stayed dead! I've freaked her out. I was so selfish, trying to punish Dad, and I didn't even consider what all this would do to her."

Daniel was clearly losing his patience. He turned and looked at her, "Look! You're not dead! You're here now. She is your mother, too and we are the only ones who can do this! Now, let's try and sound like the loving, supportive kids she SHOULD have!"

Alexis narrowed her eyes, looking almost amused, "Wow, you've REALLY changed, Daniel! I can't believe you're not out, getting drunk and getting laid right now, completely oblivious to anything or anybody outside of your own little world. Was that...actually, a pep talk you just gave me?"

He smirked, "Maybe. I've...had a little exposure to them over the past few months."

She managed a small smile, shrugging, "Well, you didn't totally suck at it. I think I like this Betty girl. She's a good influence on you."

As they got close enough to Claire to get her attention, Daniel motioned with his head for Alexis to step over with him. "Hey, Mom? What's going on? What are you doing out here, anyway, huh?"

Her eyes were glazed and she had a wild look, "Daniel! My little boy! My middle child. How are you, dear? I really love this watch you got me. It's so nice. It was way too expensive of a gift for Mother's Day, though.

And I'm a terrible mother. I don't deserve anything so nice. You spent a lot of money on this. It felt like you were trying to convince me I was a good mom."

"You are, Mom. But...could you please come on the other side? Get down, okay? You're scaring us."

She seemed to just notice Alexis. She looked at her kindly, "Aw...you look beautiful, dear. I'm glad you're happy, now."

Alexis was crying and extremely scared, "Mom, please get down! You're going to hurt yourself!"

She put her finger to her lips and looked around, "I deserve to pay for what I've done. I killed Fey Sommers. I was jealous. Your father loved her. He couldn't bring himself to give her up. So...I killed her.

Now I'll never even get to meet my other little boy. This is my punishment." She let the bottle of brandy drop into the water below, watching it fall.

Alexis and Daniel both jumped closer, worried she would lose her footing. "MOM!" Alexis bit her lip and stepped aside as Daniel inched closer to his mother, holding out his hand, and trying to smile.

"Mom, why don't you let me see the watch I got you? I'm so glad you like it. I saw it and just knew I had to get it for you. You are a good mom, you know. You've always made me feel good about myself.

I uh...I'll always be here. I'm still your little boy. But, I'd really love to get a hug right now. Could you do that for me? Here, let me help you over."

She smiled and nodded, still seeming very unsteady and confused. Daniel walked slowly so he didn't startle her and reached over to pull his mother over the railing and back on the walkway, hugging her, "Oh, thank God, Mom.

You really scared us! We both love you so much. What would make you think about hurting yourself like that? Please don't ever do that again, okay? God, Mom, you smell really good."