Part 25

Zander and Donna agreed that Donna would get the paternity test results. She would tell David what they were, and tell Zander.

Donna felt like she knew what they would be, but she was nervous when she went to the hospital to get the report. What if she had been worrying about nothing all these years? Maybe it had been wishful thinking, and that it was an illusion when she had thought her son "looked like" David Hayward.

David thought so too, and Donna thought, he couldn't have wanted to have a child he couldn't know. For David, it would be much easier if Alexander was Cameron's biological son as he was in every other way, and he hadn't had to have it haunting the back of his mind, for almost twenty years, that he had a son that he didn't know.

The idea that she might have made a big drama out of nothing was latching onto Donna's mind, and she felt sick when she got the envelope with the test results from the lab.

She went out to the little garden walk outside the hospital, and shaking, opened up the envelope.

"I felt like crying," Donna told David, starting to cry now, as she talked to David on her cell phone from the path outside the hospital. "When Alexander said he remembered you from the time you went to the house. He remembered that, because he remembered you as the only one who had ever talked to him when Peter was around."

David thought back, remembering. "I wish I had hung around more, as family friend, even if no one ever knew. Then again, that could have raised suspicion. The more I think of it, the more it sounds you may be wrong that Cameron had no idea."

"Alexander doesn't think it even matters, and he could be right," Donna said. "He doesn't envy Peter; he thinks Cameron only pressures Peter more, and so if Cam thought Alexander was smart, Alexander would have gotten the same pressure, to succeed, you know that's so big with Cam he can't see anything else."

"So if Cam thought Alexander wasn't his son, it only let off this pressure?"

"Yes. I don't think he believes Peter even has it better than he does, in his relationship to Cameron."

David thought about this for a while. "Sounds like they both could use a friend."

"I don't totally agree with Alexander, because Cam isn't so condescending to Peter, and says positive things about him. That's worth something. You can't have a father with nothing good to say about you and not have it affect you."

"Yes. That I can agree with."

They were both silent.

"Donna," he said. "Here's my suggestion; I've been thinking about it. I'll do a little write up on the family's health, and get a really basic photo album, in case he wants to see what the others look like. I'll have a pictures of me in there too, in case he doesn't want to meet with me yet, but wants to see what I look like."

"OK," Donna said. "Thank you for going easy on him, David."

"Tell him - if you think it best - I'll come over there any time to talk to him, but I'll stay away from him as long as he wants me to do that, until he might want to talk to me. Can you tell him that?"

"I will," she said.

"He must want to know about the family's health," David said. "So I'll get that for him without giving him their names, unless he wants them. I don't think my mother can be trusted with the knowledge, and my youngest half-brother I don't know well enough, but Leo and my cousin could be trusted to know about it, so if Alexander wants to know who they are, I think we could tell them about each other."

"Thanks for being so calm, David," Donna said. "I agree, what you propose is the best."

"And Cameron, I take it, nothing for now?"

"No," Donna said. "I'll see what Alexander thinks. But he can be impetuous, I don't know, being a father calmed him down somewhat, but Cam could provoke him, so you may as well be warned."

"Impetuous," David said, "OK. Yeah, I understand that. Maybe blood is thicker than water."

"Thank you David," Donna said, smiling through her tears over the phone.

Emily went to Deception with her pictures. She had done some modeling in high school. She was bored, and thought she may as well try as not.

Laura Spencer, an owner of Deception, was very kind, and looked at the pictures, and said she had a youth campaign going where she might be able to use some extra girls, if Emily was willing to be in group shots.

Emily said sure. She wasn't going to have a big ego over modeling. In fact, it sounded a lot safer than the last project she had been involved in, where the photographer had ended up putting her face on a nude model and disseminating those pictures. From then on, her parents had been adamantly against her modeling, and this might help soften their attitude.

In the halls, she saw Brenda Barrett.

"Hi," she said. "Are you out of school now, and modeling?"

"A little of both," Brenda said.

"Interesting you went back to school. I remember you dropped out, or something."

"Years ago. But now PCU and its classes are more interesting."

"Better late than never."

"Yes. That's true for you, too. Are you starting in the fall?"

"I thought I would. See if I could finally get started after that accident, and all that. Get back to where I was. So you could imagine I was glad Zander was still here."

"Why? You broke up with him."

"I still want to talk to him about all that."

"You haven't come by since the day I saw you."

"Well, I'm not sure when is the best time to talk to him."

"Me neither."

"Well, I'm sure you don't mind," Emily said. "You can't, could you, Brenda? You must be just playing around. I mean, you're not serious, are you?"

"About Zander? Well, that's private. But we have been together a while now."

"You're together?"

"Yeah."

"But you're so much older!"

"Doesn't seem to stop Zander."

"But you! He's young, he's a former drug dealer, he's a kidnapper, he's-"

"Hey, you're talking about my boyfriend!"

"Your boyfriend?"

"Yeah!"

"I don't get it, you're so much more mature than he is!"

"He's more mature than when you knew him, he's got a daughter."

"By somebody else, too! Another older woman! What a mess he's made?"

"Guess you'll want to stay away from him, then. Fine with me."

"You've got to be kidding. You would let him go for someone that loved him, wouldn't you?"

"No way, not unless he wanted to."

"He doesn't know any better. Look at the messes he gets into."

"Well, you shouldn't have broken up with him when he needed you for guidance, then."

"I don't believe you! You'd fight to keep Zander?"

"You expected a gracious pass?"

Emily shook her head. "You must be crazy," she said. "Why do you want someone that much younger? And do you really think he wants to stick with someone so much older?"

"Maybe. It happens."

"It happens, but it never lasts."

"That's up to us," Brenda said.

Emily walked off. Brenda stared.

"Well, I promise, no more cat-fights with Carly," Brenda said to Zander, sitting down at Wang Duck's Chinese Restaurant, where they had made a date for dinner. "I don't get any credit for it, though."

"Why don't you get any credit for it?" Zander asked. "I think you should get a Congressional Medal of Honor just for thinking about trying. You know she'll pick a fight with you whenever possible."

"I'll resist."

"Not you. You've got too much spirit. You'll fight. Maybe even deck her."

"You don't sound too put out by it!"

"Carly could use a good fight every once in awhile," he grinned. "You're her only worthy opponent."

"Well, it will be easier not to fight with her, because I found another opponent. That's why I don't get credit."

"Dad?"

Brenda laughed. "Oh, right. I forgot all about Dad. Well, there's also Miss Emily Smartassermaine."

"Now there is an opponent unworthy of you!"

"I'll say. But she'll do, because I have to leave Carly alone, for Ginny's sake. And she's not so unworthy as you think! She believes I should step aside, so she can repair her break up with you. I'm so old, and you're so young and well, she wants you, so that of course we both would recognize that her whims take precedence."

"Precedence! Where did you get that one? Whims is good too. But are you imagining that?"

"Maybe. She might only want to get back with you out of competition, but you know her better than I. At first I was indulgent, being as she is young and all, but when she brought out the cat-claws about my age, well, that did it! She wants to play with the big girls, she can!"

"OK. You can train her in sharpening her claws. At least you have a worthy opponent with Dad."

"What if she does want you?" Brenda said, taking his hand.

"Forget it," Zander said. "It's not worth the use of your rapier wit."

"Rapier wit? Wow, I'm impressed."

"I try to impress you with my vocabulary. But I do have other ways."

"Don't I know it!" she grinned, and reached over for a kiss.