"Dixi Martin confirmed that she knew Spenser Truman. She's unsure about Margaret." Anna Devane gave them a grave look. "Pine Valley took David back into custody yesterday. He's not talking. Dixi feels like she may have some sway, and she's going to go see him and ask our questions in person. If anyone can get any information out of him? She'd be that person."
"And if she comes back with something?" Blair asked, leaning forward in her chair. She'd been unable to shake the feeling that something was coming. It had come upon her when Bo had shown up at her doorstep and just stayed.
"Then we send someone to Pine Valley." She looked from Blair to Todd and back again.
"Don't look at me. I know nothing about this Spencer guy other then he was obsessed
with my wife, my brother almost received the death penalty because of him and that he kept Sam from us." Todd lifted his hands up from the table. "Besides I'm retired."
"What about me?" Came a quiet voice from the doorway between Todd's office and the Media room. She hadn't heard it open.
"Jack.." Blair shook her head rapidly.
"Mom.. what if I can stop it?" Her son continued.
"Jack Manning-!" She began turning to look at Todd. She stopped abruptly when she saw the look on his face. "You cannot even be considering-?"
"I'd draw them out." Jack interpreted loudly, locking eyes with his father. "If Victor offered me up.."
"Victor!" Blair yelped. "Did this idea come from Victor? I swear I'll-."
"It's my idea." Jack held up his hands."I haven't even mentioned it to Uncle Victor."
"Todd." Blair whined looking at her husband again.
"Let him talk, Blair." Her husband whispered, taking her hand from where she was twisting it against the other on the table. "Let's hear him out." She tried to pull her hand back angrily but he cupped his other palm against her elbow making it impossible. She glared at him, Todd's expression didn't waiver and her arm went limp. He calmly brushed his thumb back and forth against her fingers. "Go on son."
"They've made it quite clear they want me right?" He said boldly, despite the way his eyes shifted rapidly from the floor to the wall before landing back on his father. Todd nodded. "Well, let them think Victor's back under their spell, let them think he's bringing me into the fold. They'll take us to them. They'll let us in."
"And then they'll strap you to a chair and pump you full of drugs and wipe your memory." Blair told him sharply.
"Not if my backup gets there in time." He sighed, looking at his father. "Besides how many times have I been told I'm just like dad? Maybe I'm brainwash proof too."
"Maybe." Todd said softly. "But I'd rather not test that theory, Son."
"Then let's hope you're as good at this spy thing as they say you are." Jack smiled and Todd smiled back. Blair felt her heart pound in her chest.
"This is insane. It's dangerous."
"So we wait around until they come for Sam? Or do we lock him up here with Hope and Merrie?" Jack came into the room and sat down across from his mother. "What about me, Mom? Can I still go to back to Penn State in the fall? Or do I need to take another year off and hang out here, just to be safe?"
"Jack, I know it's hard-." Blair began weakly, she knew she'd already lost.
"Mom. This has to end." Her son implored, reaching his hand across the table and taking her other hand. "Please."
"I-." She turned to Todd, he squinted back at her pained look."I need a few minutes."
She swallowed hard and gave him a slight smile before standing up and untangling herself from Todd and walking towards their bedroom.
"Dad." She heard her son whisper. "You get it don't you?"
"Yeah, Son I get it, but-." Todd took a staggered breath. "Do you understand what's at risk here Jack?"
"Of course I do."
Blair closed the door and walked slowly to her bed, sinking down into the mattress before she started to sob.
….
Victor Lord had learned to trust his brother over the past few years. He found it irritating that Todd Manning had become his biggest confidant, but in a way it made sense. He still often thought like Todd, which gave the two of them an understanding of sorts.
It had been Todd that had managed to gain a better understanding of the organization. It had been Todd that had managed to infiltrate it and eventually free Victor from it's control.
The fact that Todd seemed so difficult to control is what pissed Victor off in the first place. Irene's tale that Victor had been the slow twin, that Todd was somehow more capable wasn't his favorite theory, but it made sense.
"Our mother was a lying manipulative homicidal maniac. Just because she says you were slow doesn't mean you have to play the part. Seriously Vic, Tina lived with her for 16 years. I know she's a self absorbed idiot but you don't think she'd have noticed a disabled little brother wandering around? She must have stashed you with someone. It's just a matter of unblocking whatever she did to your big ugly head" His brother had told him as they sat side by side one night in Tahiti when Todd and Dani had made the trip to bring Tommy home.
At that point Todd had already started sorting through his missing eight years and had put together a pretty good picture. They'd tried hard to break him, convert him, but they'd failed. Victor on the other hand had seemed to go willingly to the dark side.
It was something he'd wrestled with since an anonymous letter had led Todd to him and Cole in a mental hospital in Rural Delaware. Victor remembered very little about his time in Delaware. The clearest thing he remembered was Todd's voice rising above the din.
"Come on Victor snap the hell out of it. I need your help!" It had taken hours of deprograming. It had taken Todd reciting the names of their family members, rhythmically and repeatedly. It had taken Todd growling "How many times have you fucked my life up and I'm still here trying to save your ass?" As he tossed him over his shoulder with a grunt and carried him out.
"That's fucking ridiculous." Delgado had told him, in their dark bedroom when he had finally managed to tell her about his concern that he was the special needs case that Mommy Dearest claimed he was. That was the thing about his wife, she did not at all sugar coat things to protect his emotions like Blair had.
Blair. That was another problem all together. Since Jack's emotional outburst he had been stuck in memories. Todd memories, about death row, Spencer Truman and Blair.
Victor Lord Jr. divided his memories up into categories. First, Todd's memories,which were not really his at all, just a gift from his mother. Second were his Todd memories, the memories he'd made when he was still Todd, 100% Todd. Third were the memories that he thought of as 'transition memories', when in hindsight he could feel something in himself shifting, changing into something else, not really Todd, but not Victor either, not yet. Finally there were his Victor memories, his own life as his own person. He liked his Victor memories, even the not so pleasant ones. He wanted to fill his head with only those things, gather up as many as he could from his actual past before he'd been sent in as an understudy; a stunt double if you will.
He was only mildly irritated by Todd's memories, they didn't really have anything to do with him now. He thought about them in reference to his brother, clearly seeing them as his story alone. The transition memories were actually nice, he looked at it now as a kind of teenage rebellion in his own life story. When part of him, however small, had started to play out a different way of thinking. When he'd been able to reject some of his brother's thought process. His brother's emotional baggage.
The part he hated, really hated, were his own memories as Todd. When he acted on Todd's emotions, Todd's experiences. The four or so years he'd actually been Todd Manning were some of the most difficult times for him to recall. It was also the times that he knew Blair hated him for. Those years were the reason she was both drawn to, and repulsed by him.
So he was somewhat surprised when he'd answered the to the steady ding of his computer and begrudgingly coded into the secure channel, expecting his brothers face, only to find hers.
"What's the latest emer-?" He rubbed his eyes before glancing up at the screen. "Blair."
"Victor." She quipped. He remembered the last time he'd seen her, desperate and red eyed in the middle of the night, turning to the only person who could help her at the time.
"What's wrong?" He felt the surge of protectiveness that her frightened face invoked.
"Jack wants to risk his life that's what's wrong." She growled at him.
"Blair, while I'm not thrilled-." He tried to push down some of the adrenaline that was making his head spin.
"Not thrilled?!" She shouted.
"He's 22 Blair. Wait no, it's November he's twenty three and he's strong willed and-."
"Strong willed like you and Todd? What could go wrong?" She snapped back.
"You should be talking to Todd about this." He reminded himself he was not Todd. He was not Todd. What about a frightened angry Blair Manning made that so hard to remember.
"I'm talking to you." She sneered..
"I'm not your husband anymore." He sighed.
"YOU WERE NEVER MY HUSBAND!" She shouted her voice so full of venom he leaned back in his chair, needing more distance then over six thousand miles could provide. He waited, watching her face ripple as the rage started to leave her.
"I thought we did this already, Blair." He told her softly. "I mean I know it's not something we can get past, but I thought.." He scratched his eyebrows. "I don't know what I thought."
"All of this. All of this has taken too much from me. Too much from Todd, from our children. I will not give them Jack. I will not risk my son. I will not let them have anymore of our lives."
"They already have us." He dropped his chin to his chest, swallowing hard.
"They do no-."
"You know what I want?" She met his eyes when he lifted his face back up. "I want to spend Christmas with my sister. I want to see the kids all together in front of the damn Christmas tree. You know they've never all been in the same room? All six of them? And my sister, she's getting older and I-." Victor stopped, looking at Blair through glossy eyes. "I just want to spend Christmas with my sister."
"It's not worth risking Jack's life." She pleaded.
"You and Todd have raised these children to be independent, strong willed intelligent adults. You have made them manipulative proof Blair. So that the Max's, Dorian's or Victor Lord Sr's can't try and run their lives. I tried, remember? When the Todd wore off? I tried. Starr would have none of it, but I got to Jack and where did it get him?"
"This has nothing to-."
"It has everything to do with it." He corrected sharply. "Jack is taking control of his life. I'm not going to try and keep him from doing that. You shouldn't either." He paused for a second before finishing. "If you're done yelling at me, I'm going to go help Tommy build a fort and pretend like I'm having a good time"
…..
Todd Manning had surprisingly fallen asleep, jolting awake when his cell phone sounded next to him. He reached for it quickly, hoping it wouldn't wake up Blair, only to find she wasn't there. He frowned as he answered.
"Yeah."
"I think your wife needs you in the Media room." His brothers voice growled out.
"What's wrong?" Todd stood up and grabbed his pants from where he'd flung them over the chair.
"She's not okay with this Jack thing."
"Of course she's not okay with this Jack thing." He muttered. "I'm not okay with the Jack thing."
"I think it brought up some.. stuff." Victor's words slurred together in a rush to get out of his mouth. Todd knew that meant he didn't want to say them.
"What kind of stuff?" He walked towards the adjoining door and cracked it open.
"The whole you were taken away from her and replaced with the cheap copy that she fell for any way stuff."
"That's been brewing for a while I think." He sighed, looking at the condition of the room, it looked like hurricane Blair had hit. She sat in a heap at the table with her head in her arms. He watched her back shake.
"Because she's afraid your going to be taken away again." Victor told him bluntly. "Or go willingly."
"I think it's the latter." Todd huffed. "I gotta go."
He closed the phone as she lifted her head and looked at him.
"I like what you've done in here, homey." He whispered leaning against the wall.
"Did he call you?" She sniffed, Todd nodded. "Tattle tale. Couldn't wait to rat me out."
"He was worried." Todd told her softly. "I'm worried."
"Worried?" Blair snorted. "Not too worried to-." He realized with a tilt of his head she couldn't say it. Her breath hitched and she swallowed a sob. "And take our son with you. Put him at risk. Put yourself at risk."
"We're already at risk."
"Stop saying that!"
"Maybe it's not as real to you as it is to me because you go to Shelter. You go to the store; take the kids to school, stop by LaBoulie and Llanfair." He shook his head. "Maybe that's why you don't get that if by the rare occasion I ever leave this house it's in a bullet proof car with tinted windows."
"What happened to 'I love our life in the fortress'?" She hissed.
"I do." His voice was dangerously low, he took a slow breath to calm himself. Pushing off the wall and leaning over the table towards her. "Both things can be true."
"I don't want to lose you." She whispered.
"Babe.." He stared at her intently. "I have been shot, stabbed, poinsined and tossed off a cliff. I have come back from the dead… two, three times. I have rowed home on a homemade raft. I have spent eight years refusing to be brainwashed. I have lied, cheated, stolen, blackmailed, killed and maimed-." His voice caught as his throat tightened. "To be with you. You will never, ever lose me, Blair." He watched her chest heave as she climbed onto the table and into his arms. Her damp face pressing against his throat. He pulled her off the table and settled them both in one of the chairs, resting his cheek on her head and inhaling deeply. "And I need you to trust me. Trust me that I wouldn't ever let Jack go in to anything without me right there to back him up."
"Who's going to back you up?" She breathed.
"You." He pulled back.
"Me?" She looked at him in surprise.
"I don't go anywhere without you remember?" He arched his eyebrows at her. "You, Victor and I are going to take care of our son." He cupped her face in his hands. "And if anyone gets in our way?"
Blair smiled slyly before whispering against his lips.
"We'll mow them down together."
…..