Todd Revisited: Introduction (Chapter 17)

McBain seemed to know just how painful being in the jail cell was going to be for him.  He turned and looked at his new-found friend.  "Thanks for what you did for me earlier.  In fact, thanks for everything you did, since the start.  I mean it."

"No problem.  Just doin' my job.  Couldn't let you get shot full of holes right in front of me, now could I?"

"No, I guess not.  And what you did last night at the Premier.  You stopped me from making a very big mistake in front of my wife and kids."

"Manning's not worth it."  Then,  "Excuse the reference, it's not meant to be insulting or insensitive in any way."

"Do I look like the type of guy who would accuse you of being insensitive?"  He paused, not really expecting an answer.  "You let me talk to her, I won't forget that."

"You did more than talk, " he said opening the cell, "Now go on in.  Ya gotta."

He stopped and turned toward John.  "Please?  I've . . . I've been locked up so long.  I . . . don't know if I can . . ." his voice trailed off.

John, usually not swayed by any sort of tactic, swallowed hard.  "I'm sorry."  He waited.

Todd shuffled into the small, enclosed space and his eyes burned with tears that he blinked back.  Pulling himself together, he said, "I've been through worse.  This is a country club compared to the last 8 years.  No one's coming in here to teach me a lesson."

John found himself swallowing a second time.  "No, no one's coming in here to do anything to you.  It's just the way it has to be right now."

He saluted.  "Gotcha, Lieutenant."  He sat onto the bunk, the familiar squeak grating on him.  "What's next."

"I don't know, other than the usual.  I'll make sure you can have visitors, at this point.  I am pretty sure people are going to want to come and talk with The Man with The Face."

And at that, McBain gave him a last look, part admonishing, part pity, and left him there, alone.

He hadn't been fooling around; this was a country club.  He lay back on the bed.  There was peace and quiet and no threat of torture, electrodes or anything else.

He began to skim his own thoughts and review the past 24 hours.  Seeing his family again had given him a boost of hope, even in light of the fact that none of them really believed him yet.  Something inside him said that Starr knew he was her father, and that Blair thought so too.  But knowing Blair the way he did, she would push her doubts aside and not follow her gut, and end up in denial of some kind.  At least for a while.  He remembered how when he first saw her, he wanted to grab her and kiss her into remembrance, and was surprised that it took as long as it did for his restraint to give way.   When he looked in her eyes, he knew she knew him.  She just had to.  Any questions in his mind about still loving her were completely banished, not that he had them.  Just the feel of her softness through the pristine silk of her gown.  One thing he had hoped for, over the years, was feeling her hand touching his face again, where the scar was, and she had done it!  It had made his heart leap to feel that again, and more.

The Impostor had a strange hold on all of them, especially Tea and Jack.  Delgado could hold her own, but Jack, he was different.  He was essentially brought up by that monster, and Todd knew he would have a great deal of work to do to win over and help his son.  He saw him as someone headed down the same type of path he had taken as a teen.  He would have to stop it.  And, in essence, he saw so much of himself in Jack.  The way in which Jack responded to The Impostor, was the way that he remembered all too well as the Code of Peter Manning.  He shivered thinking about his son facing anything even half as bad as Peter, but he was almost certain that The Impostor fit the bill.  For a moment, he thought he glanced Peter standing in front of him, but immediately talked himself down.  "He's not here, not now, and not ever.  Let it go."  Instead, his memories went back to a time where Peter had made several "appearances" and had taught him more about who he was and where he had come from.

He was certain The Man was real, at the foot of his bed, standing, in a gray suit, holding the lighter menacingly in one hand.  He looked away, then looked back, to be sure.  Closed his eyes, and opened them again.  The Man was still there, but now, he was smiling.


He closed his eyes.  His mind went to a scene where he was sitting, crying, next to a hospital bed where The Man lay.  He looked different, somehow smaller, but he would recognize him anywhere.  "From now on, I'm not only your son, I'm me."  


Lilly was washing the breakfast dishes when she heard the guest speaking.  She stopped short to try and hear what he was saying.  "You're my father.  All this time, in my dreams, haunting me, you're my father?"


She wiped her hands on her apron, and without turning, she stopped to listen.


"What do you want from me?  Get away from me!  Stay away, just stay away from me!  Stay  . . ."   As suddenly as it began, it ceased.  The room became silent. 

Lilly was alarmed, at best.  She was not sure whether to disturb him, stop him, or let it play out.  She waited another moment before making a decision.  Meanwhile, Aman, who had stayed home to help this strange and suffering young man through whatever it was he faced.


 Lilly moved to the bed only to see their guest sleeping again, with the only limb that could move, the arm that was lacerated, bent over his eyes, as if in protection from shattering glass.  Aman was two steps behind her.  Both of them stared in quietude at him, slumbering in a tentative and uneasy manner.  It seemed the slightest sound might stir him.


She finally spoke.  "What did he do to him, Aman?"


Aman knew his wife.  He could tell when she was taking in one of God's damaged creatures.  He'd seen her do it many times.  Since she never had her own child, he had always looked on it as a way of Mother Nature using Lilly's motherly love the best way it could.  The fawn with a broken leg.  The baby squirrel left behind.  A nest of abandoned robins.  "I don't know, Lass."


She brushed a tear from her cheek.  "It was something awful?"  A statement more than a question.


"Let's not think about it.  Let him sleep.  The lad needs rest."


As they both turned to leave him to his dreams, he suddenly spoke.  "Hi, Lady, Mister.  I'm sorry, I really don't wanna be any trouble."


Lilly gathered her thoughts first.  "You're no trouble, lad.  No trouble at all."


"I need some water.  Can I have some, Lady?  Please?"


"Yes, Son, let me get you some."


"Gee thanks.  Mister, she's really nice.  Really nice."


Aman sat at the edge of the bed, pensive.  "Her name is Lilly."


"Heh, a flower.  Cool!  Mister?  What's wrong? Did I do something bad?  You're not going to yell at me, are you Mister?"


Aman looked up.  Lilly was right behind him with the water glass.  "No, lad, he won't be yellin' at ya.  Here.  Take this water.  And take these aspirin."


"Oh gee, thanks Lady Lilly, I do kinda have a pretty bad headache."  He took the water with an expression of pure boyhood in his eyes.


Lilly did all she could to keep from falling apart into a mess of tears.  Aman found his sense and voice first.  "You'll feel better soon.  Do you have a name, Son?"


He finished gulping down the rest of the water, and spilled a little on himself.  With his one good hand, he gave Lilly the glass, and wiped the water off his chin with the blanket.  "Yeah.  I do.  I'm Thomas Todd Manning.  But everyone calls me Tom.  You can call me Tom, if you want to, both of you.  You're real nice," and he smiled with an endearing softness.


With that, Lilly turned away and found her bedroom, where she promptly broke down and cried into her apron, at the edge of the four-post bed in their modest cottage on the Isle of Innishcreg.


"That's how I first met you, Tom," he said to himself, staring at the ceiling.  "Poor Lilly, she didn't know what to make of me.  What a good heart.  Both of you."

For the rest of the night, he imagined what it might be like to make love to Blair again, and it brought him the ability to find some rest.