Blair looked out the window of the hotel room and tried not to look at the clock again. Todd said he'd meet me here, she told herself firmly. Hell, he gave me the money for the room. He's not going to let his precious cash go to waste. She walked over to the mirror of the dresser and fluffed her hair. Unless he wants to see how much of a sucker you really are...

She shook her head. "No," she said aloud. "He wouldn't back out. He wouldn't."

It was strange how one minute she was wondering if there was anything to look forward to and the next everything was possible again. She had put her heart on the line, asking Todd for another chance and, at first, he had walked away with nothing but cold words to answer her plea. And then he was back...

And when they kissed... oh God, when they kissed. Was there anything else in the world but them? Blair went back to the window. He promised to fix things. He promised all sorts of things. In between kisses he promised her that they would be together again. They'd be a happy little family with Starr the way they should have been from the start. He promised he would make everything right.

Blair knew it was going to be a lot more complicated than that. He had another wife to worry about. And they were in the middle of a custody battle and... could it be true? Could he really want to start over? Could they get over the hurt and come together again for real? Blair clasped her hands together and looked up reverently. "I know I'm probably not Your favorite," she prayed quietly. "But, please... he's the only person who has ever really loved me and he's the only man I've ever really loved. I know we've hurt each other and we probably will again but we need each other. And we've got a little girl and we both love her so so much. Please let us have this chance."

A soft knock at the door was the answer to her prayer. Blair moved towards it and looked through the peephole. Todd was at the door, looking down the hallways and fidgeting while he waited for her. She opened the door and he quickly slipped inside.

She stood back as he shut the door behind him, turned the deadbolt and put the chain on the door. "How's Starr?"

Todd moved to close the drapes. "Starr's fine. She's staying with Viki tonight. I told her I was going to be working and making arrangements all night. What about you?"

"I told Cassie I needed to be alone." Blair sat down on the edge of the bed, a haunted look in her eye. "Todd... I didn't mean for that to happen."

He sighed. Admittedly, his first thought when Blair shoved Delgado out the window was that his bid for Starr's custody just crashed right along with her. Delgado was okay for a chick lawyer but he was growing increasingly uncomfortable with her the longer he lived with her. People thought he was obsessive but, good Lord, the woman was almost too much to deal with. "What happened?"

Blair's hands clenched into fists as she remembered Tea taunting her about what a wonderful marriage she had with Todd and how Starr was beginning to look at her as her mother. "Are you sleeping with her, Todd?"

He probably shouldn't have grinned at that but he couldn't help it. There was something gratifying about knowing that Blair was bothered by the idea of him sleeping with someone else. It suggested that she would have fought for him if he had given her a reason to, rather than leaving her twisting in the wind because of her evil aunt.

"You don't act like lovers," Blair continued. "I know how you would look at me when we were together and you don't look at her like that. She doesn't look at you like a lover would, either."

"No one else seems to have noticed," Todd frowned.

Blair looked at him. "They don't know what you're like underneath that reputation you cultivate so carefully," she murmured, reaching up with one hand to touch his face. "I remember the way you looked at me after our Christmas… thing. I remember the way you looked at me at the Gold Star Gala that we crashed. I remember the way you looked at me after that night in the stables. You would look at me like you wanted to shove the entire world into next week so we could be alone. You were my lover once, Todd," the tip of her nose brushed against his. "I know what to look for."

"You never said anything," he replied.

"What could I say? No one who would believe me even cares. No one who cares would believe me." Her hand slid from his cheek to his neck. "So, tell me Todd. Are you sleeping with her?"

"No," he breathed in her scent and couldn't remember a time when he wanted her so badly. "I'm not. I don't even sleep in the same room as her." Delgado had been pretty adamant about making sure she wouldn't have to put out to the rapist but it sure didn't stop her from wearing a bunch of skimpy nightgowns or strut around in his shirts. The more he thought about it, the weirder it was. Not that he didn't look, she was a pretty good looking woman but...

He looked at Blair. She was wearing jeans and a button down shirt over a tank top and he thought she was the sexiest, most vibrant woman he'd ever seen. If he stood Blair in what she was wearing now next to Delgado in one of her low cut silk numbers there would be no contest. Blair could outshine her without even trying. At least she would in his eyes.

"Does Starr call her 'Mommy?'" Blair's voice trembled as she asked the question. Oh God, don't let it be true.

Todd pulled back. "What?!"

"That's what she said tonight," Blair admitted, flushing as she relived the horrifying minutes between shoving Tea through the glass and then being told she was alive. She had never known that kind of rage before and it scared the hell out of her. Worse... that the woman who incited it was living with her daughter, and that her daughter might actually be looking at that woman as her mother.

"That's what set you off," Todd ran his fingers through his hair and stood up. "Jesus, Blair, no wonder..." If someone had suggested that Starr was calling someone else 'Daddy' he'd have killed them. No doubt in his mind. That's what she meant by 'plausible deniability.' If I knew that she was going to go after Blair like that... Christ, Blair just lost a baby! Delgado feeds her that line of shit right after she suffered a miscarriage? Who the hell is this woman?! The alarming part of it was that he knew Delgado had this merciless streak in her. He'd counted on it in order to insure that he hold onto Starr. As usual, he let his desperation and recklessness cause more trouble than he'd anticipated.

He turned to look at Blair and saw her eyes pleading with him to tell her it wasn't true. "Listen to me," he sat next to her again. "Starr knows who her mother is, okay? She knows you, Blair, I promise. She's never called Delgado 'Mommy' and she never will. We're gonna fix this, okay? But... it's not going to be easy."

"Why," Blair burst out, grabbing his face in her hands. "Why can't we just go to Santa Domingo and get a quickie divorce for you and get married again? Why can't we do that?"

It was tempting. Todd thought that there was little in the world he would rather do than make Blair officially his again right away. "No... listen to me, babe," he sighed. "I've fucked things up enough by jumping into things. I want to do this right. I want to make sure that no one can come after us without screwing themselves worse than they'd screw us."

She looked at him. Are you setting me up, Todd Manning? Blair searched for anything that would give her a clue that he was going to turn his back and leave her to the wolves again but there was nothing. When she looked at him she could feel that he was with her in every way. She smiled wickedly. "That means we're going to be adulterers."

Todd raised his eyebrows at her. "Maybe this time we'll have that love affair that lasts forever." He smiled when her eyes recognized what he'd said and she seemed to radiate love and passion directly at him.

"Maybe," she whispered.

Todd threw her back onto the bed and prepared to finally, finally, come home.