"Well, obviously I have to go back to Springfield," Roger replied. "I'm sure Dinah will be spending the night with Hart tonight-"
"Oh yeah, she is," Frankie interjected.
"But she'll undoubtedly show up at the penthouse first thing in the morning, and then Hart will come by shortly thereafter so that they can begin working on me," Roger continued. He sighed. "I hate to do it, since it's his birthday, but I think I'd better touch base with Michael before going back to Springfield."
"And no one in Springfield knows that you and I are...what we are right now, so I can't be there," Holly realized.
"No, you can't," Roger agreed.
Holly sighed. "I hate this," she said. "They're trying to make you think you're insane. They want you sitting in a room with padded walls, in a straitjacket, and you're going to have to face them tomorrow alone, and I don't trust them not to drug you or something if you don't act crazy enough for their liking."
"I can be very convincing when I need to be. That's how I survived in the Agency for so long," Roger said. Truthfully, he didn't put it past Dinah and Hart to drug him either, and if that happened, then he wouldn't be at Bay City General with Michael's brother as his "doctor." Dinah and Hart would stick him in the first hellhole they could find and leave him there to rot, with all of his avenues for help-Holly, Chrissy, Michael, Frankie and Cass-unavailable to him. "I won't eat or drink anything around them, and I'll put on the best crazy act this side of Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight."
"I really hate that I can't be there with you, watching out for you," Holly said softly.
Roger looked at Holly helplessly. "I wish you could be there too, but they don't know that you tipped me off about what they're really doing in the first place, and they can't know, because if they know, then they might come after you, and I won't have that."
"Ah, Mary Frances, shouldn't we leave them alone?" Cass whispered to his wife.
"We should," Frankie whispered back, "but I still have to go over with Roger exactly what my part in this is, and unlike Holly, I do have one." She looked at Holly and Roger. "Wow. It's like looking in a mirror five years ago."
"It really is," Cass agreed, "except I was generally persuasive enough to get you to let me tag along for work stuff. Although we were never in a situation like theirs."
"Except for the New Year's Eve stakeout you ran out on," Frankie reminded him.
"Because I couldn't trust myself not to do something stupid like try to make love to you," Cass replied. "I sat in the hall all night."
"I never knew that," Frankie said, surprised.
"I didn't really want to leave you, but I knew I had to get out of that hotel room or I'd completely mess us up," Cass said.
"You did have the annoying habit of proposing to me almost constantly back then," Frankie recalled.
"I wanted to be married to you. I made the mistake of letting you go once. It wasn't a mistake I was going to compound by spending any more time away from you than I absolutely had to," Cass replied.
"I just hate that you have to walk into that lions' den and face them down by yourself, okay?" Holly said, bringing Cass and Frankie back to the present. "I love you, I worry about you. It comes with the territory."
"But I'm not going to be facing them down by myself," Roger pointed out. "For one thing, I'm guessing that Frankie is going to be nearby-"
"Yes, that's why Cass and I are still here," Frankie interrupted then. "To talk about exactly where nearby I'll be tomorrow."
"-and for another," Roger continued, "I won't really be going in there alone." At Holly's skeptical look, Roger amended, "All right, yes, literally, in that moment, it will be me by myself with Hart and Dinah, but when I get out of there, I'll know that you're waiting for me. And I'm not really going to a mental hospital. Not to stay. A few hours with Michael's brother shepherding me around and overseeing me, and I'll be walking the streets again. Well, the streets of Bay City, not the streets of Springfield. And you'll be my first call, I promise."
"I hate that I can't be there," Holly said again.
"You don't have to like it," Roger replied. "You just have to do it. This is the necessary next step."
Holly sighed. "I'll be your first call?" she asked.
"The second the coast is clear and I get to a phone," Roger said, crossing his heart.
Speaking of the phone, it rang then. Roger grabbed it on the first ring. "Hello?"
"I got your message, Roger," Michael Hudson said on the other end of the line.
"I'm really sorry to interrupt your birthday," Roger said, chagrined.
"It's 12:03 AM. It's not my birthday anymore, and it was a great one. So, you need me to set in motion what we talked about before?" Michael replied.
"Yes," Roger said. "As soon as possible."
"So where are we at? Defcon what?" Michael wanted to know.
Roger considered this for a moment. "Defcon Three," he finally said. "Serious, but still a few steps away from nuclear war."
"Understood," Michael said. "I take it you'll be returning to base?"
"Affirmative," Roger confirmed. "I'm leaving tonight."
"Jack Nicholson and I will be standing by, waiting for word from you," Michael promised. "Call when you need us."
"Will do," Roger promised, then hung up the phone.
After finishing his phone conversation with Michael, Roger gave Frankie the address of the penthouse in Springfield. She would follow him there now with listening devices, plant them in the penthouse, and then she would record everything while monitoring the bugs from her car in the building's parking garage. Once that was settled, Frankie and Cass finally left Roger and Holly alone.
After the Winthrops had departed, Roger said, "I'd better be heading back myself. Frankie said something about following me there, and I'll need to pack a few things, and have them hold this suite for me." But he didn't head to the bedroom to pack. He stood where he was, beside Holly. And she stood stock still as well, looking back at him.
"So much to say, no idea how to say it, or where to start," Holly said, smiling weakly.
"Yeah," Roger said. He looked at Holly with such obvious longing that it took her breath away. "Not all of my fantasies and dreams about you are about making love with you. There are a lot of things I dream about, or fantasize about, doing with you, and having long, uninterrupted conversations about everything and nothing is one of those things."
"It's that way for me too," Holly replied. "In fact-" She stopped abruptly, biting her lip and looked down.
Roger took one of Holly's hands in his and gently tipped her chin up with his other hand so she had to meet his gaze again. "In fact what?" he asked.
"It's silly," she said.
"You're allowed to be silly with me," Roger said, giving Holly a look of encouragement.
She paused for a minute, then said, "Something I've thought about is staying up all night with you and just talking."
"We'll have to do that when things calm down some," Roger said. He was holding both of her hands in his now. "Part of me wishes that Dinah and Hart had waited until tomorrow to do this, but the rest of me wants to get going on this and get on with it, so that I can concentrate on you, and on us."
"You be careful when you're with them," Holly said. "Promise me you'll be careful." The look in her eyes matched the urgent, intense tone in her voice.
That was a promise Roger could easily make. "I promise," he said solemnly. "I'm not going to take any chances. I meant what I said a few minutes ago: I have too much on the line now for this not to work. I want to get everything with Dinah and Hart settled because I don't want any shadows hanging over us, and until I'm legally free of Dinah, and she has her money back, that's what she and Hart are, a shadow hanging over us. And I don't want them hurting you in any way."
"I don't want them hurting you in any way either," Holly said.
"They won't. I won't let that happen," Roger promised. "Can I tell you something?"
"You can tell me anything," Holly replied.
"When I was in the Agency, before going on a particularly dangerous mission, I would always find myself thinking of you, and Blake," he confessed. "And compared to most of my missions, this is a cakewalk. I survived those missions because I knew if I didn't, any chance I might have to make things up to you and our daughter, to make things right with the two of you, would be gone...and that's when you thought I was dead, and thinking that you and I could be together again was the ultimate pie-in-the-sky dream. Well, now it's not a dream anymore. It's a real chance, and it's becoming realer every day. I'm not going to do anything to risk losing this chance, because I've never wanted anything in my life as much as I want to get things right with you, Holly."
Holly swallowed past the lump in her throat with difficulty. "I've never wanted anything in my life more than I want to get things right with you," she said tearfully. She cleared her throat, which did nothing to dislodge or dissolve the lump there. "You'd better go," she said, "before I really start crying."
Now Roger looked pained. "If there was any other way..." he whispered.
"I know," Holly whispered back. Unable to stop herself, to resist the impulse, she reached out and touched Roger's face, the way she always used to do during that all-too-brief year they were together in Springfield and she was feeling particularly affectionate towards him. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch for several seconds. He knew exactly what it meant when Holly touched his face like this, and after nearly two years without feeling her touch upon his face, he was going to savor it for these few seconds.
When he opened his eyes and saw her standing there in front of him, looking at him tearfully, her hand still resting on his cheek, he looked into her wet eyes for the space of two heartbeats, then brought his own hand up and rested it on top of the hand she had on his cheek. Then he gently turned his head and pressed a soft kiss into her palm. Her breath caught, then she whispered, "Be safe."
"I will," he vowed. He took her hand in his again then, squeezed it, and said, "I love you."
"I love you too," Holly replied in a choked voice. Then, because she was in Roger's suite, after she squeezed his hand back, she let go of his hand and hurried out the door and down the hall to her own suite. Since she didn't look back, she didn't know that Roger gave her a few seconds' lead time, then followed her to the door and watched her rush down the hall to her own suite, unlock and throw open the door, and slam it shut behind her.
"Nothing and no one is going to get in our way this time, or ever again," Roger promised Holly before he quickly packed, made arrangements for his suite to be held, and then drove back to Springfield.
Meanwhile, Holly was doing some packing of her own, and about half an hour after Roger had left The Bayshore, she left too, after making similar arrangements for her suite to be held, also headed to Springfield, to her house, where it took her hours to fall asleep.
Roger was having similar difficulties sleeping at the penthouse, and he of course had no idea that Holly was nearby at her own house. He managed to get about four hours' sleep, and then he gave up at 6 AM and called The Bayshore, figuring that Holly wouldn't mind if he woke her up this early just this once. Ned, Roger's favorite concierge, answered the phone. When he asked to be put through to Ms. Lindsey's suite, Ned replied, "You mean you didn't know, Mr. Thorpe?"
"Know what?" Roger asked anxiously, his grip on the receiver tightening.
"Well, I came on at 11 last night, as you know, because I was the one who made arrangements to hold your suite for you until you return," Ned continued. "Ms. Lindsey left about half an hour after you did, after asking me to do the same with her suite, and she had a small suitcase, the same as you. I thought you knew."
"Holly left last night?" Roger asked, surprised.
"Yes, she did," Ned replied. "But we're holding her suite, the same as we're holding yours. There must have been a breakdown in communication."
"Something like that," Roger said. Holly had to be here in Springfield. If she left The Bayshore, where else would she have gone but her own house? "Thank you, Ned."
"Anything you need, Mr. Thorpe, you and Ms. Lindsey know where to find me," Ned said.
Roger was halfway through punching in Holly's home number when an insistent knocking came at his door. Biting back a curse, he hung up the phone, donned his bathrobe, and opened the door to Frankie. "You look like hell," she greeted him as she breezed past him.
"I didn't get much sleep last night," Roger grumbled as he closed the door.
"That's a good thing," Frankie replied. "The more haggard you look to Dinah and Hart, the more believable your 'breakdown' will be to them." Frankie then busied herself setting up the bugs throughout the penthouse. "That should do it," she said when she'd finished. "I'll be recording and monitoring everything from my car in the parking garage downstairs. And if things get dicey, I'll call the local police immediately."
"I can't thank you enough for all that you're doing to help me out with this, Frankie," Roger said, and he meant that sincerely. He was not the kind of person who had gotten much help from others throughout his life, and he was genuinely, sincerely appreciative of everything Frankie and Cass, and Michael, and now Michael's brother, were doing to help him, and to help Holly.
"Everyone needs help from time to time," Frankie said, "and I'm a big believer in good karma. And as much as you and Holly remind me of myself and Cass years ago, how can I not help you?"
"I just hope that Holly and I eventually get to a place where we're as happy together as you and Cass are," Roger said.
"You will," Frankie said certainly. "I'll be downstairs, listening to and recording every word. Good luck, Paula." At Roger's confused look, Frankie clarified, "Ingrid Bergman's character in Gaslight. You mentioned the movie last night."
"Right," Roger said. He showered, decided to forego shaving since he looked more unkempt with stubble on his face, and then there was nothing for him to do but wait for Dinah and Hart to show up.
And he didn't have to wait long.
Dinah walked in the door a few minutes after eight AM. She seized on Roger's appearance immediately. "Roger, you don't look so good," she said, feigning deep concern over the way he looked.
"I don't?" Roger asked blankly.
"You really don't," she said.
Then Dinah acted like it was a big coincidence when Hart showed up fifteen minutes later. Roger knew it was anything but coincidental, but he channeled all of his energy into acting extremely fragile. Roger asked Hart about something Hart had mentioned a few weeks ago, about Peter, and Hart played it off as if Roger wasn't remembering it correctly at all, as if the conversation never happened. Dinah, naturally, backed Hart up, and then both of them were working overtime to convince Roger that the conversation about Peter had never taken place at all.
Then they went in for the kill, with first Dinah and then Hart suggesting that maybe Roger should talk to somebody, a professional, because these mental lapses had been going on for the past few months, and they were obviously getting worse now that Roger was remembering conversations that never even happened.
Roger played right into their hands, and cleverly got them to agree to take him to Bay City General Hospital, helped along by the serendipitous stroke of luck that Cedars had no in-patient beds available on their psychiatric wing. Also, because Dinah and Hart believed that Roger was checking in for an extended stay at Bay City General's psychiatric wing, he was able to take his suitcase and shaving kit back with him without arousing their suspicions. He couldn't hear them while he was packing in the bedroom, since they had stayed in the living room and were speaking in hushed tones, but he had no doubt that Frankie was getting an earful in the parking garage thanks to the bugs she had planted earlier.
A short while later, Dinah and Hart were flanking Roger as they walked through the doors of Bay City General Hospital. A quick check of the directory in the lobby sent them upstairs to the floor where the psychiatric wing was housed, and Roger was relieved to see Michael sitting behind the main desk, dressed in a white coat and with a very real-looking ID badge with his picture on it clipped to the pocket of that white coat.
"Can I help you?" Michael asked when they stepped up to the desk.
"Yes," Dinah said, "we'd like to check my husband in."
"Let me get our chief of psychiatry," Michael said. He then paged Dr. John Hudson to the ninth floor.
Dr. John Hudson was a tall man, but that was where his similarity to his older brother ended. Where Michael had blond hair shot through with strands of silver, blue eyes, and was clean shaven, John had salt-and-pepper hair that was more salt than pepper, a full mustache and beard that matched, and brown eyes. He exuded an air of calm competence, and Roger felt instantly at ease with him, especially when John said that Dinah and Hart would have to wait outside while John conducted his preliminary examination of Roger.
Roger and John hadn't been in the exam room for a full minute when the adjoining door opened and Michael entered. "How you holding up, Roger?" Michael asked.
"A lot better now that the hard part's over," Roger replied truthfully. He extended his hand to John Hudson for a handshake. "I can't thank you enough for doing this," he said.
"Anything for a friend of Mike's," John replied as he shook hands with Roger.
While Roger, with the help of the Hudson brothers, was scamming Dinah and Hart into believing that he was about to begin a three-month stint on the psychiatric wing of Bay City General Hospital, Holly spent the day giving her house a thorough cleaning from top to bottom and getting rid of a lot of things she didn't really need any longer in the process.
When she was cleaning out her closet after she'd had an early dinner, she found the heart that Roger had cut out of a memo at WSPR and given to her on Valentine's Day two years ago. It was the next day that she had given him a key and formally asked him to move in with her, and he had accepted, telling her that he'd been happier in that little house with her than he'd ever been anywhere in his life.
But too many people and too many things had gotten in their way back then, Holly reflected as she sank down on the edge of the bed, the paper heart in her hand. The only person whose support they really had in Springfield was Blake's. The more toxic aspects of their history were too well known in this town, and never forgotten. Apparently no one could truly fathom how Holly could forgive Roger for everything that had happened between them years ago. But they didn't have that problem in Bay City. Given that Frankie was a private investigator, Holly was fairly certain that Frankie knew exactly how toxic Holly and Roger's early years truly were, but she didn't sit in judgment of them for wanting to be together again, she didn't look as Roger as a career criminal or at Holly like someone who had taken leave of her senses, she didn't bring up the past at all. All of Frankie's focus was on the present and the future. It was the same way with Cass, and with Michael and Donna, and with Rachel. For them, the past was remembered, certainly; mistakes were admitted and learned from; the good memories were held onto; and the future was looked forward to with eager anticipation. And every single one of them was rooting for her and Roger to find their way together again, and either directly helping them deal with the obstacles in their path or had offered to help them in any way that they could.
There was an insistent knock at Holly's front door then. She carefully laid the paper heart on top of the black velvet jewelry case she had brought with her from Bay City, whose contents she had spent a good amount of time looking at earlier, that was on her nightstand by the phone and the bedside lamp, and went to answer the door.
Blake was standing on the porch, with Kevin and Jason both asleep in their double stroller. She looked unhappy. "Good, you are here," she said. "Ross and I had an argument and he stormed out of the house, and I couldn't just sit there and stew about it, so I packed up the boys, and they fell asleep on the drive over. Can we come in?"
"Of course," Holly said, relieving Blake of the giant diaper bag she carried and her purse as she carefully wheeled the boys into the house. "What did you and Ross argue about?" she asked as she carefully, quietly closed the front door.
"Need you ask?" Blake inquired sardonically.
"Dinah," Holly realized.
Blake checked on Kevin and Jason, who were both sleeping peacefully in their stroller, then sank down on the couch with a weary sigh. Holly sat down next to her. "I agree with Ross that her marrying Dad was a big mistake," Blake began, turning to face her mother, who was facing her. "They haven't been around much lately, either one of them. Ross thinks that means they're off somewhere together getting close for real. I believe it's much more likely that Dinah is off somewhere plotting against Dad and waiting to lower the boom, or she's off with someone else getting close for real, but God forbid I cast such aspersions on Ross's precious saint of a daughter. I didn't know her when she was 17. Maybe she really was like that then, but she's certainly not like that now. And I know this because I used to be her, at least the way she is now."
Blake tilted her head back and stared at the ceiling. "Ross underestimates her. He thinks there's no possible way she could get back at Dad for anything, but I'm just as certain that he's wrong about that, and I just have this horrible feeling that something big and awful is going to have to happen for him to see that." She lifted her head and looked at her mother again. "I don't want to fight with Ross about this," she continued. "And I don't want to say 'I told you so.' I don't want to see anybody get hurt here, including Dinah, because that would hurt Ross, but it's out of my hands, and I just can't shake the feeling that something is going on that I don't know anything about. but I'm convinced that Dinah is up to something, and whatever it is, it's really going to knock Ross for a loop when he eventually finds out about it, because I don't know exactly what she's up to, but I'm sure it isn't good."
Holly silently reflected that Blake was right on both counts: Dinah was indeed up to something that wasn't good, and she was also off getting close with somebody who wasn't Roger. But she and Roger were still determined to protect Blake as much as possible, so Holly elected not to inform Blake that she, Holly, knew what Dinah was up to, or how she had that information. "Did you tell Ross that you're not looking for an opportunity to say 'I told you so,' you're just trying to look out for him?" Holly asked.
"Yeah, but I don't think he believes that," Blake said sadly. "He knows that I've never been Dinah's biggest fan, and that the feeling is mutual, but so far, he's only blaming me for the fact that Dinah and I don't get along. I'll take my share of responsibility for that fact. But Dinah needs to take responsibility for her part in this too, and she's not." She sighed. "I get that it's weird for her, having a stepmother that's closer to her age than her father's, but Vanessa doesn't take this kind of stuff from Dinah for being married to Matt Reardon, and Matt and I are the same age. Of course Ross says that's because Dinah has always been closer to him than she's been to Vanessa, but that seems like a weak excuse to me. Matt says she doesn't like him either, but he doesn't let it bother him, and she's not trying to come between him and Vanessa. I don't know, maybe she's resentful because Kevin and Jason get to grow up with Ross, and she didn't. Maybe she resents me because she wishes Ross was with Vanessa. I could understand that. I never liked anybody else Dad was with, and the only other man you were ever with that I liked was Ed because who doesn't like Ed Bauer, except for Dad."
Then Blake looked her mother right in the eye and said, "I don't suppose you and Dad have secretly gotten back together and you're just not saying anything because your divorce from Fletcher isn't final yet, and he hasn't even gotten divorce proceedings with Dinah started? Because if you have, I wish you'd tell me, because I could really use that kind of incredible news right now."
Holly had no idea how to answer that question, but she was saved from having to try to answer by Kevin letting out an ear-splitting wail. "Shh shh shh," Blake soothed as she picked him up and cuddled him close to her. He started rooting at her blouse. "Okay, that answers that question," she said. "I'm just going to take him back there and feed him, okay? Can you stay out here and watch Jason? Bring him back to me if he wakes up crying?"
"Sure," Holly agreed. Blake took Kevin into Holly's bedroom, and Holly stayed in the living room and regarded Jason, snoozing contentedly in the stroller. "Your brother has excellent timing," she said quietly so as not to wake Jason. "Your grandpa and I aren't back together yet, but we're working on it, but we don't want to say anything to your mommy until everything is all settled." She studied Jason's tiny face. "You sure do look like your grandpa-his dark hair, his eyes. You haven't seen much of either one of us lately, I know, but that's going to change. We just have to take care of some unpleasant grown-up things first."
The phone rang then, and Holly snatched it up in the middle of the first ring before it could wake Jason. Back in Holly's bedroom, Blake heard the phone ring and wondered if it was Ross, calling looking for her and the boys. "Hello?" Holly said quietly.
"It's me," Roger said on the other end.
"Are you all right?" Holly asked anxiously.
"Yeah," Roger said. "It worked." The wonder and relief were palpable in Roger's voice in those two words, but then he elaborated. "Frankie recorded everything this morning, and she's got them on tape discussing their gaslighting of me, how the plan worked because I agreed to go to the psych wing at Bay City General, how they were going to get the money out of the Cayman Island account...all of it. She played it for me after I left the hospital. Michael and his brother John played their parts perfectly. I didn't know Michael was going to be there until I got there, but he was, and it all went off with a hitch. We've got them, Holly."
"That's great," Holly said, and she felt the knot of tension in her chest dissolve. Roger was out of danger, and Frankie had, as promised, gotten proof of everything Dinah and Hart were really doing, or trying to do, to Roger.
"And I told Dinah that I didn't think it was fair that she stayed tied to me while I was recovering, so I told her to go ahead and file for divorce, that I would sign whatever I needed to sign so that she could get on with her life with someone healthier and more deserving of her than I. She put up a token protest, but finally she agreed, so I figure she'll be having Ross file the papers ASAP," Roger continued.
"That's wonderful," Holly said. "I'm just so glad that you're all right."
In Holly's bedroom, Blake's curiosity got the better of her. It wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility for Holly to be discussing her with Ross for a minute or two if Ross was the one on the phone; they were friends, after all. Blake carefully picked up the receiver and put it to her ear...and got the shock of her life when she heard who it was her mother was talking to, and what they were saying.
"Are you back at The Bayshore now?" she heard Holly ask.
"Actually, I'm at Michael and Donna's," Roger replied. Dad?! And who are Michael and Donna?, Blake wondered. Roger went on, "I was at the hospital for a few hours, and then we had to make sure that Dinah and Hart really left. Then I met with Frankie, she played the tape for me, and then since my car is still in Springfield, Michael picked me up from the law office, and he insisted that I have dinner with him and Donna. And I know nobody's tapped their phone, so I told him I was gonna call you before we eat. So, as promised, you're my first call as soon as I could get to a phone."
This Frankie must be a private investigator, Blake mused to herself. But I don't remember hearing that name from Dad before. And I knew Dinah was up to something no good, but who else is in on it with her? Dad said 'they,' so somebody else is helping her, but who?
"You might have mentioned last night that you were going back to Springfield too," Roger said then.
"I guess I should have told you," Holly agreed. "But I didn't actually make the decision until I ran out of your suite. I knew I couldn't be there with you when you saw them, but I needed to be as close to you as I could when I knew you were with them, so I came back to my house last night."
"Ned told me you'd left half an hour after I did when I called The Bayshore this morning at 6 AM looking for you," Roger replied. Ned? What the...Why don't I know any of these people?, Blake wondered, frustrated. Who are these people to my parents? "I was going to call you at your house this morning, but Frankie got there before I could."
"I'm coming back in the morning," Holly told him. "I'd come back tonight, but Blake and the boys are here. She asked me if you and I are secretly back together and just not saying anything yet because we're still legally married to Fletcher and Dinah."
"What did you say?" Roger asked.
"Kevin started wailing, so I didn't have to say anything, which is good because I didn't know what to say," Holly replied. "We agreed that we weren't going to say anything to Blake until we have something definite to tell her."
"Yes," Roger agreed, "and I think we should stick to that. Ross is laboring under the delusion that Dinah is like Mother Teresa. Once he finds out what she and Hart have really been up to-"
Blake nearly dropped the phone at this point. Hart?! Dinah and Hart?! Whoa!
"-that delusion will be shattered into a million pieces, and that's when he's really going to need Chrissy and Kevin and Jason, because the truth about Dinah is going to blindside him. I just hope that he lets Chrissy be there for him."
"And neither one of us wants Ross to suspect that Blake knew anything about this until after it's all out in the open," Holly said. "The last thing either of them needs is Ross blaming Blake for this. Blake is the one person truly innocent here."
"So are you," Roger pointed out, "although if Ross knew that we're getting closer, I doubt he'd see it that way."
They're getting closer? Exactly what does that mean?, Blake wondered, riveted by her parents' phone conversation.
"I think Ross will have a few other things to worry about besides us," Holly said. "I want there to be an us, Roger."
"I do too," Roger said. "I'm not there yet, but I'm getting there. I am. If you'll just be patient with me a little while longer, Holly..."
"I will be patient as long as it takes," Holly replied. "I want you to be able to trust me without any doubts and without any fears. And you're worth the wait."
"I love you," Roger said.
"I love you too," Holly replied.
"And we'll be able to concentrate more on each other now that things are progressing on the Dinah and Hart front," Roger said.
"I like the sound of that," Holly said, and both Roger and Blake could hear the happiness in her voice.
They are getting back together!, Blake silently exulted. At least, they're working on it. This is the best news I've heard in forever!
"I should probably get off the phone before Blake comes back from feeding Kevin," Holly said.
"Kiss the boys for me, and I'll see you when you get back to The Bayshore," Roger said.
"First thing," Holly said. "Good night."
"Good night," Roger said softly.
Blake waited until she heard Holly hang up the phone before she hung up the bedroom extension, but when she did, she accidentally knocked the items sitting in front of the phone off Holly's bedside table and onto the floor. Kevin was sound asleep, so Blake carefully laid him on Holly's bed and surrounded him with pillows before dropping to her knees on the floor to pick up the rectangular black velvet box and the piece of paper on top of it.
When she picked up the piece of paper, she saw that it was a heart. There was writing on one side, but it wasn't what she expected, since it contained sentence fragments-what was it, a memo?-and part of a date: -uary 14, 1994. Valentine's Day two years ago.
Her parents had been together on Valentine's Day two years ago. She remembered them coming to The Towers that night, and she talked with them while Ross was off talking with Bridget about her upcoming custody case with Vanessa over Peter.
Her mother had kept this because it had come from her father.
But when Blake picked up the rectangular black velvet box and brushed the lint off the top, she didn't think, didn't question, she just reacted. She opened the box, and what she saw inside caused her to nearly drop it.
Because nestled securely inside that rectangular black velvet box were two platinum wedding rings.
Two small folded pieces of paper were tucked into the lid, and Blake looked at them: receipts, one for the purchase of the rings, one for the engraving inside them, both with Holly's name on them as the purchaser, though the amounts were scratched out...and both receipts were dated May 27.
Oh my god, Blake thought as the meaning of the rings hit her full force. Mom wants to marry Dad! They're working some things out, and neither one of their divorces is final yet, but she wants to marry him! He didn't sound like he knows that yet, though...Oh, Mom, how romantic. She knew that her father had proposed to her mother, but Holly hadn't given him an answer before Alex and Fletcher and Dinah and everything going to hell. And when she had eavesdropped on her parents' phone conversation a few minutes ago, Holly had said that she wanted Roger to be able to trust her with no doubts and no fears, and Roger had said he wasn't there yet, but he was getting there. They really were getting closer, working things out, and once they did, Blake realized, Holly wanted Roger to know just how serious she was about wanting them to be together, hence these wedding rings. But Roger clearly didn't know that Holly was thinking that far ahead yet, and Blake wasn't about to say anything to either one of them about finding the rings.
She carefully replaced the rings and the paper heart, then scooped Kevin up. "Oh, Kevin," she whispered to her sleeping baby boy, "you'll keep the secret with Mommy, won't you? You and me and Jason, we're not going to let anything mess up Grandma and Grandpa's chance this time."
That was when Blake heard Jason crying from the living room. She hurried back out there, settled the sleeping Kevin in the stroller and picked up Jason, praying that her face didn't give her away to her mother. Before Blake went to feed and change Jason, she looked at her mother, who was tucking Kevin's blanket around him to ward off any possible chill from the air conditioning.
Blake's poker face was convincing enough that Holly didn't notice anything amiss. But when Holly sat back on the couch after tucking the blanket around Kevin, Blake certainly noticed the happy sparkle in her mother's eyes, and now she knew for certain that her father was the reason for it.
The happy sparkle was still there when Holly appeared in the bedroom doorway to tell Blake that Ross was waiting for her in the living room. Blake finished changing Jason and carried him out to the living room, and before she could say anything, Ross said, "I'm sorry, Blake. I feel like Dinah's up to something too, and I have no idea what it is, and it frustrates me that she won't let me in, and I took it out on you and I shouldn't have."
Blake went to Ross. "I'm on your side," she told him seriously, "no matter what."
"I know," he said, taking Jason from her, then pulling her into a hug with his other arm. "Can we go home and talk about this calmly after these guys are asleep?"
"Yes," Blake replied. "And if they'll sleep long enough, maybe we can even make up all the way."
Blake noticed that Holly kissed both Kevin and Jason twice, and knew that one of those kisses was from Roger.
After Holly said good night to Blake and Ross, and they left with the boys, she went back to her bedroom and picked up the rectangular black velvet box from her nightstand. She opened it and looked at the wedding rings inside, gently touching both rings with the tip of her index finger.
"Someday," she said aloud. "We're going to get it right this time, Roger."