Originally written before I saw the continuation of this episode in Season 5's Full Circle, I didn't to change it even after I saw what a scumbag Tommy turned into. Seriously, who brings a kid to a drug deal?

Flesh and Blood

"You two are more alike than you are different. You both have suffered much pain."

Leonard Page thought that after surviving the first trial the second would be easier. In fact, it was probably worse knowing that each and every accusation he had made earlier should have been directed at the delinquent sitting a few rows in front of him.

The two men were so similar in height and build! Why didn't Tommy help his daughter when he had the chance? Why did he let Megan die?

No, the angel had told him not to dwell on what ifs. His daughter was in better hands, and if he wanted to see her again, he'd have to put the anger and bad thoughts behind him.

He had been alone before, he was alone now.

Or was he?

A comely woman dressed in a worn dress approached the chairs reserved for visitors gingerly sitting herself down. Sitting so close to the edge of her seat, he guessed she was preparing to bolt at a moment's notice.

Wait. That was Tommy's mother.

What was Kate Prescott doing here?

But she was here and she was a familiar face besides his lawyer. He gave a tentative smile and waved her over to the empty seat beside him. She returned the gesture with relief. Their tear filled revelation that one night was one thing but today was another day entirely.

The trial was quicker this time and though the defendant had confessed to the deed, the jury was new. Each and every single detail of the murder was laid out again, the brutality of the crime, the callousness of the execution. He choked back tears as a photo of his daughter's corpse was shown.

He couldn't take it, not again. The world was spinning and he felt it darken, but a firm hand took his shaking one. It was a quick gesture, one of comfort and platonic affection. It gave him strength to last the long day.

The trial adjourned for the time being, but he found himself unwilling to part from his unexpected comforter.

"Come to my house... please" he added as an afterthought.

Mrs. Prescott reluctantly nodded and got into his sleek sedan. Always she saw the differences in their stations. Where he drove, she had to wait in the cold for the bus. His picturesque mansion was situated in the nice part of town in comparison to her shabby house across the bad part of the tracks. Megan had been excelling in college while Tommy barely hung onto a minimum wage gas station job.

If she had raised her son in these circumstances would he have turned out the way he has? If their situation were reversed, would his daughter been the one caught stealing?

Megan's necklace was wrapped around her wrist like impromptu prayer beads. It brought her comfort in the quiet nights since Tommy left, but then again he had often been away from home. Leonard Page was only just starting to cope with the empty nest, and his house echoed the love for his child. Proud pictures and awards littered every surface.

"She was my pride and joy." His wife had died early on and Megan was all he had.

"Tommy wasn't the best of children, but he was my son." Her husband was a bum and left their lives as soon as he could.

Mrs. Prescott bet Mr. Page never had to shove and scream at his darling daughter. They spoke of random stories about their children. The father knew the woman was staying only to distract him, giving him something to take his mind off of the second trial.

She wrung her hands together in agony as she uttered her worse fears, "I defended him with every fiber of my being. I couldn't think that he could kill Megan. I thought I knew my son."

Maybe… maybe murder would have been the next step in his slow slide into delinquency. First, being present at the site of a vehicle theft then petty larceny, the evil within him could only escalate. Her son left the body of Megan Page in a pool of her own blood, only to rob the poor girl of her sentimental jewelry. Was that not as evil as pulling the trigger himself?

And she had abandoned him in his lowest hour, refusing to allow him to even call her his mother anymore. The intervention of an angel was the only thing that turned him around, not her love. Monica had said that Kate was an imperfect person and that only faith would carry her through, but it was so hard.

Mr. Page gave the woman a look of pity. No parent wanted to believe the worse in their child. He could see the pain in the woman's eyes when she gave the interview acknowledging her son's guilt on national television, but all the man could think about at the time was how justice could finally be done.

"I started the witch-hunt for your son. Encouraged it when I should have trusted in justice," Mr. Page admitted.

These things happen for a reason. She's in a better place now.

Those words were the worse things to say to a grieving father.

Even after Mrs. Prescott's revelation of Tommy's lesser guilt, all of the hate and pain within him continued to roil and crash like a turbulent ocean.

Tess had said it would never end, the fear, the anger, it was an all-consuming poison. Forgiveness was the antidote.

He had forgiven Tommy's heinous deed. He had sought Mrs. Prescott's forgiveness, and when he was absolved, suddenly the guilt of leaving Megan to her death lifted. He would try to help Mrs. Prescott forgive herself and reach that same salvation.

TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA

The sensational trial ended with a guilty verdict for the true murderer, but the plaintiff did not gloat or crow with satisfaction. He only gave a subdued interview to the news cameras.

"What changed Mr. Page?" the reporter questioned.

"None of this will bring my baby back, and she wouldn't want to see me that way."

He had admitted as such to Mrs. Prescott in private. Megan would have been horrified to see her father's fanatical reaction to her death.

Mrs. Prescott thought that would be the end to their strange friendship now that the trial was over. Megan's father would probably want to put the whole ordeal behind him as soon as he was able.

But he didn't.

He called a service to fix her broken window and re-patched the bullet ridden walls himself. She in return made him a couple of homemade meals in thanks. The two found it easier when a meal was for two than for one. Mr. Page offered to send out channels to look for Tommy, but Mrs. Prescott politely declined.

"Tommy wanted to find his own path."

TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA

No one knew who had the bigger shock five years later, when Thomas Prescott returned to his childhood home.

Tommy, for realizing the man drinking tea with his mother was the father of the girl he had been accused of murdering oh so long ago.

His mother, for seeing her prodigal son returned home, with a stable job and a loving wife in tow.

Or Mr. Page upon holding Tommy's baby daughter in his arms, a little girl named Megan.

You'll hold your little girl in your arms again someday.

It wasn't quite the same, but it was as close as God intended on this good earth.

As the baby babbled in his arms, Mr. Prescott could not help but think as the happiness within him rose like the sun from behind cloudy skies, "To err is human, and to forgive divine."

Ugh, dirtbag Tommy Prescott. Of course your mother didn't believe you. He stepped over a girl's body to steal her jewelry! What if she was still alive? She could have been saved if he called for an ambulance beforehand. I like the twist with Sally Jessy Raphael being his new angel, hence his full redemption in my story. It was harder believing that Leonard Page should just forget about his anger and pain over his daughter's death, but I understand stewing over it was wrong.

Haha, sorry for the long rant. More writings to follow,
Grignard