Just the feeling of their bodies pressing against each other again was enough to put Todd and Blair into lustful overdrive. Between frantic kisses they shed their clothes as quickly as they could, paying no mind to any traditional ideas of romance and seduction. The need to feel each other again overrode everything else. When they were naked they stretched out on the bed, wrapping arms around each other and almost melting together.

Blair cried out in pleasure as he pulled her tight against him. She wanted to laugh, she wanted to cry, she wanted to scream out in joy at having her beautiful Todd back in her arms. "I've missed you," she sighed, as his mouth moved down her neck, sucking and licking her skin as if he couldn't get enough of her taste.

As her hands drifted up his back she felt his body tense. He lifted his head to look at her. His hooded expression inspired a puzzled one on hers and then she felt it. The skin felt different and Blair knew that she had found the scars from Ireland. She met Todd's gaze unwavering and reached around with one hand to touch the scar on his cheek. He was holding his breath as he waited for her to say something,do something.

Blair raised her head to kiss him gently. "Let me see them, Todd."

Tea Delgado Manning felt the effects of the painkillers settle over her and sighed softly. Her plan to provoke Blair had worked better than she thought. She had expected Blair to lose her temper and start a screaming match. She had expected a slap or two. Maybe at the most she would have expected Blair to try to take her down in one of those stereotypical hair-pulling matches that were such wonderful ammunition in court.

Never in her wildest dreams did she think Blair would assault her so dangerously. The only real downside to it was that she, personally, could have died. But since she didn't it all worked out brilliantly. Blair was so horrified by what happened that she would go out of her way to not attack her in the future. The courts would see how dangerously unbalanced she was and she and Todd were sure to get custody of Starr.

Not only that but people had been visiting her since she was cleared to have them. All the suspicion that people had been carrying around in regards to her marriage to Todd had disappeared under expressions of sympathy and solidarity. Now she was the new wife being brutalized by the jealous ex. Blair had inadvertently legitimized her marriage to Todd. How easy it had been. Just push a few hot buttons and voilà. Even Todd had been by earlier expressing all sorts of regret for getting her into this and Tea knew she couldn't let this opportunity slip by.

She would have everything she ever wanted. No one would look down on her again.

Kelly Cramer knocked on the door of Llanfair and prayed that she was doing the right thing. She didn't know which end was up anymore and all she wanted was to turn the clock back and make things right for Blair again. That, of course, was impossible and her testimony in court had been viewed as a complete betrayal.

Then there was the accident.

Kelly loved her older cousin desperately. She wanted to comfort her but Blair couldn't stand to be near her. She supposed that it made sense. If the situations had been reversed, wouldn't she feel the same way? Mel and Dorian were trying to help but it was doing more harm than good. Kelly was at a loss. There was only one thing she could do now.

Viki's housekeeper showed her into the library where Viki was contemplating the fire nursing a drink. She looked tired and worried. Kelly could sympathize. Everyone seemed tired and worried anymore. She couldn't remember the last time she laughed and meant it. "I'm sorry for coming at such a late hour, Viki," she said, "but I just didn't know what else to do."

Viki gestured to a nearby chair. "Would you like a drink?"

"No, thank you."

"I don't normally have nightcaps anymore," Viki sighed wearily. "After tonight, though, I just felt like it would help to settle my nerves. Starr's asleep upstairs so I didn't think it would hurt."

"Starr's here?"

Viki nodded. "Todd said he had to take care of a number of things and would be working through the night. And with Tea being in the hospital... well anyway, she's sleeping. Blissfully unaware of what has happened tonight."

"Tea's going to be okay, right?" Kelly asked. It was bad enough what had happened between her and Blair. Kelly had seen Blair's face after the glass broke and it had haunted her all night. The way people seemed to close around her and the look of horror and defeat on her beautiful face. Blair knew that no one would defend her because what she did was indefensible.

But Kelly had heard it all.

"The doctors seem to think so," Viki replied. "She's very lucky. She could have very easily been killed. I know that tensions have been high between Blair and Tea since her marriage to Todd. Not to mention the immense stress Blair has been under recently. And she has always been very high-strung. But this..." she shook her head. "I just don't know what could have set her off."

Kelly looked at her hands clasped tightly in her lap and sent up yet another frantic prayer that she was doing the right thing. "I know what set her off, Viki. I heard every word."

Todd moaned softly as he felt first fingers then lips then tongue caress each scar on his back. The bullet wounds were there along with the lovely textured flesh that was the result of being tossed around the Irish Sea. He should have known that Blair wouldn't care. She was never put off by any of the scars he carried and it wasn't as though he didn't have any bullet wounds before he went to Ireland. Blair had always just accepted him.

God, what a small, cramped little man he'd been.

Not that he was okay with the McPoet sleeping with his woman because he wasn't and he never would be. Blair being pregnant with his kid had made it all the harder to get over. And he hadn't been particularly amenable about it anyway. He resented the whole situation, kicking himself for not taking his wife to bed immediately, kicking himself for getting mixed up in the entire situation in the first place. Why the hell did he stick around to babysit Marty's lover?

It didn't matter anymore. What's done is done. And when push came to shove and no one would do what had to be done and tell Blair the truth. Who had done it? It certainly hadn't been that stupid mick with the superiority complex. No, it was him, Todd Manning.

"I made them show me where you were shot," Blair whispered as she touched him. "I kissed the ground and laid down on it wishing with all of my heart that I could die, too."

"Glad you didn't," he told her, looking over his shoulder as she leaned forward to kiss him. "Since I wasn't dead or anything."

"I stayed alive for Starr," she said softly. "And then I stayed alive so I could get revenge."

"I know," Todd turned to pull her into his lap. "You told me."

"I didn't think you heard me."

"I heard you, Blair, I just didn't want to. It was easier not to." He looked down at her legs and he stroked them softly. "How do they feel?"

"They're getting stronger every day," she murmured, her face flushing deeply. She hated being perceived as weak. And after the accident that was how she felt. Her body betrayed her in every way. She could barely function and when she woke up her entire life had been ripped away from her when she was completely defenseless.

But now, being here with Todd, his skin against hers, her fingers playing with the hair on his chest, she felt like she was able to put her life back together again. She and Todd had so much to straighten out between them but she was willing to put those aside until they were actually together to work them out.

He kept touching her, his fingers brushing over her hips and her stomach and the curls between her legs. "I don't know what to do, Blair," he whispered. "Part of me wants to be inside you so bad I can't think straight. The other part wants to touch and taste every part of you." He raised his head to meet her eyes. "Tell me what you want me to do."

Blair kissed him again. She could never get enough of kissing him. "Is this the only time I'll have with you?"

Todd studied her expression. No begging, no tears, no malice, just a simple, straightforward question. He'd almost forgotten what those were like. "No."

"Then take me now," she covered his mouth with hers in a deep kiss. "We've waited long enough, sweetie. I want you. Oh God, I want you so bad."

It was all he needed to hear. Falling back onto the bed, he maneuvered her under him and shoved himself inside her with a quick, hard jab. When he felt her legs wrap around him he couldn't stifle the gasps of pleasure that rushed out of him. She felt so good around him. It had been so long. This was so right.

Their coupling became wild and frenetic almost instantly. Mouths traveled clumsily across the other's face and neck, hands grasped, bodies strained. As he exploded inside her, Todd heard himself calling out her name over and over again. "Blair... God, Blair... love you... love you... my Blair..."

Viki watched Kelly disappear into the night and went upstairs to check on Starr. As she watched the little girl sleeping peacefully she wondered if it was possible to keep her out of the Penthouse as long as Tea Delgado so-called Manning was living there. She didn't want to believe what Kelly had told her at first. She didn't want to believe that anyone would be so malicious as to taunt a mother with the idea that their child no longer knew her as their mother.

She knew Todd had been desperate to keep Starr when Blair was on the brink of death. She wondered if he was even aware of what he'd aligned himself with.

Viki promised herself that she would help Blair see her child as much as possible. She had bent over backwards to let Todd develop a relationship with his child when he had first returned. She had even let him get away with kidnapping the baby, for reasons she wasn't even sure she remembered at this point. If she could do it for the father then she could do the same for the mother.

As a mother herself, Viki couldn't stand by and let Tea manipulate things so viciously. Viki had several ideas on how to deal with the situation. But first, she would talk to Todd.