A Fresh Start
Chapter Twenty Nine
Richard and Cassie sit next to Will's bed all night. The next morning he wakes up, smiling, he looks over at his mom and Richard. "How are you feeling buddy?" Cassie asks, gently brushing back the hair from his forehead.
"Better." Will replies. "Mommy, where has he been?" He asks, looking over at Richard.
"Well…." Cassie looks at Richard
"Will, do you remember my accident?" Richard asks as Will nods. "That accident made me very tired so I've been asleep in the hospital so the doctors could watch me and take care of me and make sure that I get better."
"Are you better now?"
"Yes, I'm as good as new." Richard replies.
"I'm hungry." Will says, looking at Cassie.
"I'll go check with the nurse and see if they can get you something to eat. I'll be right back." Cassie says, getting up. She leaves Richard with Will, returning a few minutes later. Walking in, she finds Richard is sitting by the bed, holding Will's hand while they both watch cartoons. Standing in the doorway, she watches them for a few seconds before Richard senses her presence and turns towards the door. Smiling as she walks over to them. "The nurse is going to bring you something to eat Will." She says, sitting down on the bed.
"Okay." He says, distracted by the program on T.V.
Looking over at Richard, she nods for him to follow her out into the hall. "We'll be right back Will."
"Okay." He replies, still distracted by the program.
Richard follows her out into the hall and when the door closes behind them, he asks. "Is something wrong?"
"Yes, Will's question about where you were at got me to thinking. We have another son we have to explain this too."
"RJ."
"Yes, he has no idea that you're alive, Richard. I left before I could tell him anything and we told William not to tell him anything until we knew what was going to happen."
"We can explain it to him when he comes to see Will."
"I think he needs to know before he comes here. He's been through a lot since you left and I don't want to traumatize him anymore than is necessary."
"You're not sure how he's going to react to me coming back."
"Yes, first there was Hart, and then you were there and then you were gone and then he had Edmund and that fell apart, and then there was Jeffrey and he really opened up to him. I think because he reminded him of you. But I messed that up and then I got involved with Josh and he left. I don't know how he's going to react to you coming back."
"You think he's going to be afraid that I'll leave again."
"Yes." Cassie says, moving out of the way when the nurse walks up with Will's tray. She nods to them as she walks into the room.
"What do we do?" Richard asks, taking her hand.
"I think I need to go talk to him, prepare him, for you."
"I can stay here with Will. And if anything happens, I'll call the palace."
"Okay, but I'll be at our villa. Do you remember the number there?"
"Yes, I think so. If not I'll ask William to call you."
"I'll be back as soon as I can. I don't know if I'll bring RJ with me, but I'll talk to him and I'll see how he reacts."
"If you need me…."
"I'll call you." Cassie says, leaning over to kiss him.
"I love you." He says when she steps back. "And it'll be okay."
"I love you too. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Okay."
Cassie walks away as Richard opens the door to Will's room.
Since Cassie left to go to Washington with William, RJ has been staying at the villa with Ms. Chitwood. He spent a lot of time at the palace with Will but today he is sitting by the pool when Cassie walks outside. He turns around when he hears her walk up. "Mommy." He cries, running over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Hi, sweetie." She says hugging him back. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing, Will's sick so I've been pretty bored. Where have you been? Ms. Chitwood said you had to leave." RJ asks, stepping back and looking up at her.
"Yes, I did. I had to go take care of something. Why don't we sit down sweetie?"
"Is Will okay?" He asks following Cassie over to the chair he had been sitting in.
"He's getting better." Cassie says, sitting down in the other chair.
"Ms. Chitwood said you had to go to Washington, why did you need to go there?"
"I had to go take care of someone very important to both of us." Cassie says trying to figure out the easiest way to tell him that Richard was alive.
"You've been gone a long time. Did you go to Springfield too?"
"No, I was in Washington the whole time. RJ, listen to me." Cassie says, taking his hand.
"Okay." He says, looking at her.
"There's something I need to tell you and I'm not quite sure how to."
"What? Is Uncle Josh coming back?"
"No, your Uncle Josh isn't coming back. He's staying with your Aunt Reva."
"Oh." RJ replies.
She hears the disappointment in his voice and her heart breaks because she knows that sadness is partially her fault. "RJ, you remember Richard's accident."
"Yes ma'am." RJ replies, sounding even sadder.
"And you remember how your Aunt Reva turn off his life support and his heart was given to Rick."
"Yes." RJ replies, trying to figure out why she was bring this up.
"And we had the memorial service and his grave is next to Tammy in Springfield."
"Yes, why are you talking about Richard? You haven't brought him up since Tammy died.
"I guess the only way to tell you this is to just tell you. Richard isn't dead." Cassie says, looking at him.
"What! Yes he is. You said he went to be with Hart and Grandma Sarah." RJ says, jumping up.
"I thought he had."
"But I saw him at the memorial service."
"It's a long story to explain RJ, but Richard didn't die in the hospital that day. He's heart wasn't given to Rick. He's alive and he's here in San Cristobel."
"I don't believe you. Why are you doing this? First, you tell me that he died and now you're telling me that he's alive."
"I know this is hard to understand. When I got to the hospital after your Aunt Reva turned off the life support, I thought it was Richard. But by the time I reached the hospital that day, your daddy had been taken to another hospital and I didn't know. Sweetie, I didn't know he was alive. I promise you I didn't know."
"I don't believe you. You're lying, I don't believe you. Richard's dead, and he's not coming back. I don't believe you, I don't."
"RJ, I know this is a shock, but Richard is alive. He's at the hospital right now with Will."
"I don't believe you. Richard died, Aunt Reva killed him." RJ yells before he turns to run into the house.
"RJ, wait." Cassie says, getting up to follow him.
RJ runs to his bed room, locking the door, he refuses to open it when Cassie knocks
"RJ, please." She pleads through the door. "I'm not trying to hurt you. But he's alive, sweetie. He's at the hospital with Will. He wants to see you."
"No! Go away. I don't believe you and I don't want to see him." RJ yells through the door as Ms. Chitwood comes upstairs.
"Mrs. Winslow, is there a problem?" She asks.
"Yes, he's upset at me." Cassie says, pacing in front of RJ's door.
"What happened?" She asks.
"I just told him that Richard is alive, and he doesn't believe me." Cassie says, looking at RJ's door. Stopping, she walks over to the door and knocks again. "RJ, please sweetie. I swear I'm not making this up. He is alive, sweetie, I promise."
"Mrs. Winslow, why don't you let me try?" Ms. Chitwood says, walking over to the door.
"RJ, its Ms. Chitwood. Can you open the door and talk to me?"
"No, I don't want to talk you, either of you."
"RJ, I swear I didn't know he was alive." Cassie says
"Maybe you should go downstairs." Ms. Chitwood whispers.
"Okay." Cassie says, turning away from the door "Thank you."
"You're welcome." She says, walking over to RJ's door, knocking softly.
"RJ, its Ms. Chitwood. Can you open the door for me?"
"No!"
"You're mother isn't up here. She went downstairs." Ms. Chitwood says, trying the door again. "RJ, I know you're upset but you can talk to me."
"She's not up here." RJ asks, getting up from the bed and walking over to the door.
"No, your mom is downstairs." Ms. Chitwood replies, as RJ unlocks the door and opens it, peeking out to see if Cassie is there. When he doesn't see her, he opens the door and lets Ms. Chitwood in.
"She's lying, he's not alive." RJ says, walking over to his bed and reaching up to wipe the tears from his cheeks.
"Sweetie, I'm sure your mother wouldn't…."
"Yes, she is. She's trying to make me believe that he's Richard. He's not, Richard is dead."
"Sweetie, I haven't seen your father but if your mother…."
"She's…."
"… says he's alive then I believe her." Ms. Chitwood says, interrupting him. "I know you've been through a lot, but what if this is your father?"
"It's not."
"How do you know that?"
"I saw him, in his casket." RJ says, looking at her. "I watched the guards put him in the ground. He's buried next to Tammy. He's not alive." RJ says, reaching up to wipe his nose on the back of his arm.
"Sweetie, I know you saw Richard's grave. But do you really think that your mother would tell you, your father is alive and he's not. Do you really think she would hurt you again? That she would hurt herself again. You know how she was after your father died."
"She was sad, and she cried all the time."
"That's right; do you think she would put either of you through that again?"
"No, but she said that he went to be with Hart and Grandma Sarah." RJ replies, looking over at Ms. Chitwood.
"Maybe you can let her explain what happened." Ms. Chitwood says, brushing RJ's hair out of his eyes.
"What if this is Richard. What if he leaves again? Edmund, Jeffrey and Uncle Josh were going to be my Daddy too and they left. Richard left, Hart left, Tammy left, everyone leaves."
"Sweetie, that's the way life is. People come and go from our lives. It doesn't mean that they don't love us any less while they are here. And your mother loves you too. She wouldn't tell you this unless it was true. I think you need to go downstairs and talk to her." Ms. Chitwood says, reaching up to wipe his face.
"But…."
"Do you trust me?" She asks, as he nods. "Then you need to go talk to her and listen to her."
"Okay." RJ replies. Getting up, he walks out of the room and downstairs.
Cassie is sitting in the living room when RJ walks in. He stops for a few seconds, watching her, waiting for her to say something. Looking up, Cassie motions for him to join her on the couch. When he sits down, she draws him closer to her.
"I want you to listen to me." She says, putting an arm across his shoulder. "I would never tell you that Richard is alive, if it isn't true. I know it's hard for you to understand and I'm going to try and explain it to you. And I know that you're afraid that he'll leave again, and I can't promise that something won't happen. That's the way life is. There are no guarantees."
"I saw him, in the casket. I saw them put him in the ground and now you want me to believe that he's alive. How can he be alive, if his heart was given to Rick?"
"Do you remember those two boys in your class last year, Chris and Mark?"
"Yes, they're twins. They looked exactly alike. Ms. Price had a hard time telling them apart all year. Are you saying that Richard has a twin?"
"He did have, that's who you saw being lower into Richard's grave, his twin brother."
"But why didn't Richard tell us he had a twin brother? Why didn't we ever see or meet him?"
"Richard didn't know about him. You remember how Uncle William was thought to be dead, and that Richard was brought to the palace to take William's place and be Prince."
"Yes, but he wasn't the real prince because he has a different mommy."
"That's right, when Richard was born Prince George made a deal with Richard's mother. He would keep Richard and she would take Richard's brother and she would raise him and Prince George would never see him again, nor would Richard's mother ever see Richard again. So, Richard's mother took her baby and she went to the United States and she never saw Prince George or Richard and Prince George never saw his other son again. They grew up apart."
"But how does that explain Daddy being alive?"
"Before Richard's accident, the agency that Jeffrey works for found Richard's twin brother."
"Why didn't Jeffrey tell us about him?"
"Jeffrey didn't know until after Richard's accident."
"So, Richard had a twin. But Aunt Reva turned off Daddy's life support."
"No, she didn't. She turned off your uncle's life support. She didn't know it wasn't Richard. He had already been taken to the other hospital when your Aunt Reva came back to your daddy's room."
"So, Daddy's heart wasn't given to Rick."
"That's right."
"If he was alive, why didn't get contact us?" RJ asks, looking up at her.
"He was in a coma."
"A what?"
"He was in a deep sleep. He couldn't move. He couldn't talk. He didn't know where he was, or that we thought he was dead."
"But he's awake now and he's with Will at the hospital."
"Yes, do you want to go see him?" Cassie asks.
"I don't know." RJ says, looking up at her.
"We can go see Will. I'm sure he would love to see you."
"Okay." RJ replies, still sounding uncertain as Cassie hugs him to her.
"It's going to be okay."
"Okay." RJ says sounding a little reassured before Cassie releases him.
Standing up, Cassie calls to Ms. Chitwood. "Ms. Chitwood, we're going to the hospital. We won't be late."
"Yes ma'am." She replies, walking out of the kitchen. Cassie and RJ leaves.
Jeffrey and Sam look at several places on 5th street before heading to Main and Co2. Pouring a cup of coffee, he walks over to where Sam is sitting. "Did you see any place you like?" He asks
"No, not really." Sam replies taking a sip of bottle water as Jeffrey watches a young girl walk by with her boyfriend. She catches the expression on his face. "Why don't you call her?" She says, putting the cap back on the bottle.
"Do you mind?" He asks. "I just want to see if she's back."
"Of course I don't mind." Sam replies, as he pulls out his cell phone and dials Ava's number at the Beacon. After a couple rings, her voicemail picks up.
"Hey, this is Ava. I'm not here right now, but leave me a message and I'll call you back."
"Ava, this is your Dad. Could you call me when you get back from San Cristobel?" Jeffrey says, hanging up a couple seconds later.
"She wasn't home."
"No."
"Why don't you call her at the palace? I'm sure William would let you talk to her."
"No, I'm not going to check up on her. She'll call me when she gets back." Jeffrey says, putting the phone back in his pocket.
"Okay."
"Since you didn't see anything that you liked on 5th street. Do you want to try the office buildings around Cedars?"
"No, they will be too high in rent beside I don't want something that's modern. I was thinking something more small town, like an old Victorian house or something."
"There's a couple of old house over by Company. They can be converted into a medical office."
"Are they commercial properties?"
"Some of them are, but we can get them zoned commercial if they're not."
"Okay, let's go look at them." Sam says, standing up with Jeffrey following her.
When the royal jet lands, Ava thanks the pilot and walks off the plane. While she was in the harbor the night before she had called Stacey and asked her to pick up her car, and before she left San Cristobel she called her again and asked her to pick her up at the airport so she wouldn't have to deal with Jeffrey or Olivia until she was ready to explain why she had gone to San Cristobel. "Hey girl!" Stacey says, as Ava tosses her bag into the back seat. "How did it go?"
"Fine, thanks for picking the car up."
"You're welcome."
"Did Olivia say anything when you dropped it off?"
"No." She wasn't at Beacon when I dropped it off, at least I didn't see her."
"Good, I don't… Can you take me to the Beacon?"
"Sure, are you going to see Olivia?"
"I hope not." Ava replies, as she buckles up and they leaves the hanger.
"That was a quick trip."
"I had some personal stuff to take care of." Ava replies, looking at her before she returns to looking out the window.
"You know, I saw Mike the other day."
"Really." Ava mumbles, totally disinterested in talking about her ex.
"Yeah, he seemed a little bummed out."
Ava doesn't reply and Stacey glances at her, realizing that was she wasn't listening to her. "Okay, you want to ell me what's on your mind." Ava still doesn't reply. "Ava!" she calls, snapping her fingers.
"I'm sorry Stacey. I've got a lot on my mind."
"I can see that. You can tell me what's going on."
"I was thinking about the conference call Alan has set up for…."
"It's more than that." Stacey says, interrupting her. "I saw your parents at the Spaulding gala last night. They seemed to be in a heated conversation. Are they still dating?"
Ava has once again slipped into her own problems and doesn't reply to Stacey's questions. When Ava doesn't reply Stacey doesn't say anything else, a few minutes later she pulls into the Beacon parking lot and parks.
When the car stops, Ava finally comes back from all the thoughts running through her head about William and the baby. "Thanks for the ride." Ava says, opening the car door. Getting out, she reaches in the back for her bag as Stacey says. "When you're ready to talk, I'm here."
"Thanks." Ava replies, closing the door.
Stacey drives away and Ava walks into the hotel. Olivia is standing with her back to the door so she doesn't see Ava walk in and go upstairs. Walking into her room, she drops the bag by the door. Glancing at the phone, she realizes she has messages. Walking over, she pushes the button for play back and then sits down on the couch.
"Ava, its William. Ah, I don't really know what to say to you. I guess I want to make sure you that you know that I'm there, if you need me, whatever it is. If you want me to be there when you tell Jeffrey and Olivia, let me know."
"Your Highness, the Lord Chancellor is waiting…." Jodi says
"… Okay, I'll be right with him. Ava, I've got to go, but please call me if you need me. Good-bye." William says, hanging up a couple seconds later.
"Ava, this is your Dad. Could you call me when you get back from San Cristobel?"
Ava looks over at the machine, almost expecting Jeffrey to be standing there looking at her with a look of accusation. Reaching for the phone, she starts to dial Jeffrey's number but hangs up. She sits there for a few seconds, trying to figure out how he knew that she had gone to San Cristobel and then remembers Stacey saying something about seeing Jeffrey and Olivia, in a heated conversation at the Spaulding gala the night before. Taking a deep breath, she dials Jeffrey cell phone.
Jeffrey and Sam are walking back over to Co2 when Jeffrey cell phone starts to ring. Pulling it from his pocket, he glances at the screen before he says "It's Ava."
"Okay." Sam replies, turning to walk over to the shop windows.
"Where are you going?" He asks, looking up at her.
"I'll be right over there." Sam replies, pointing to the shoe store.
"You don't need to…."
"No, talk to her." Sam says, giving him a quick kiss before she walks over to the store and Jeffrey answers the call.
"Hello, Ava."
"Hi, Dad."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"I talked to your mom last night."
"Really. Stacey said something about seeing you two at the gala last night. How did she handle you with Sam?"
"She was fine. But she had some interesting things to say about you. Are you busy right now?"
"Ah, I've got some…."
"We can talk about this now Ava, or I can come over."
"Olivia is downstairs and I do have some work that I need to get done."
"Alan can wait. I'm coming over." Jeffrey says, standing up and walking over to the shoe store. Walking inside, he found Sam looking at a pair of sandals.
"What do you think?" Sam asks, showing him the wedges she found.
"They look good. Ava, hang on." Jeffrey says, taking the phone away from his ear.
"Dad…."
"I need to go to the Beacon."
"Ava's home?"
"Yes."
"Okay, I'll take these." Sam says, taking the sandals off. Putting the shoes in the box, she hands them to the salesman before she turns to Jeffrey. "I'll be ready in a minute." She said, walking over to the register
"Ava, I'm coming over." Jeffrey says, returning to their conversation.
"I'm really…."
"I'm coming."
"Is Sam with you?"
"Yes."
"Do you think it's good for her to be here with Mom…?"
"Stop stalling Ava, Olivia is going to have to accept the fact that Sam is apart of your life, if you're going to be a part of mine. We'll be there a.s.a.p."
"Dad."
"It'll be okay." Jeffrey says softly
"Alright, fine." Ava says, giving up.
A few minutes later, Jeffrey and Sam walk out of the shoe store. Opening the door to the truck for her, he climbs in behind her. Starting the truck, they leave for the Beacon. Twenty minutes later, they walk into the lobby of the hotel. Olivia is standing at the front desk when they walk in. She signals one of the clerks to come cover the front desk as she walks over to Jeffrey and Sam, intercepting them before they can walk upstairs.
"What are you doing here? Why is she here?" Olivia asks, looking over at Sam.
"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm going to talk to Ava. Sam is with me."
"Don't you think we should talk to Ava and she can stay down here, if she wants?" Olivia says, still looking at Sam.
"No, I don't. We're not going to ambush her. And as to Sam, she's with me. She goes where I go." Jeffrey says, walking around Olivia and leaving her standing in the middle of the lobby.
29.10