The Shadows Fall: Chapter 9

He kissed her, long and deep, then gazed over her shoulder out the elliptical glass window of his private jet.  "We are married, Mrs. Manning."

"Yes we are, Mr. Manning.  What is our first thing to do as man and wife?"

"You have to ask?"  he said, nuzzling her ear.

"Besides that."

"Get ready for our Moonbeam to be born.  Decide what's for dinner, things like that."

"Moonbeam?  What is that?"

"The baby's name."

"No, we're NOT naming the baby 'Moonbeam.'"

"Well, our daughter is Starr, why can't the new baby be Moonbeam?"

"We'll talk about this later."

"We have plenty of time," he said, "to name the baby, and of course a lot of your time will be spent caring for her."

"Oh no you're not."

He looked at her, incredulous.  "Huh?"

"You're not keeping me at home or something.  You know I like to work, be in the action.  I was a great CEO in my day."

"What do you want to be CEO of?"

"Well, nothing right now.  But if the need arises...You know, Todd, you have no idea what I actually accomplished the times you've gone missing."

"Yeah, Eli Clark, Tomas DelGado, Zeus as Me, just to name a few.  Don't forget John McBain."

"Stop, I am being serious here.  When you disappeared in 1995, I took The Sun and saved it.  I worked hard, every day, and I lost my own company by not paying it much mind."

"I know you did, Babe."  He kissed her forehead, "and I love you for that and many other things.  I know it was hard.  Want to know my biggest regret?"

"Of course, if you want to tell me."

"I never really admitted this in words before, except in therapy.  My biggest regret was not thanking you earlier for saving my life's work, and for trying to save me when I came back from Ireland. "

She didn't say anything, but swallowed.  Thinking of him during that time, brooding, moody, in so much pain, without confiding to her what he was dealing with...it was still agonizing for her to remember him that way.  There was no reaching him.  Until his daughter became ill, she barely saw a crack in his carefully-placed armor.   

He went on, "So, I do owe you a big debt for saving my company.  The Sun had been everything to me for so long.  If I had lost it, I don't know what I'd do.  It was the way I became a real person, or someone who mattered in society, outside my family."  He reflected, as she pushed his hair behind his ear, "I remember how it was when I first started it.  How it grew, and how you and I were on the top of the world together.  And when I got back from Ireland, I was so bitter, but The Sun was still there, because of you.  We even started to come together because of it, and Starr of course."

"I know.  I remember, my love."

"That's why you deserve a shot at it."

"At what?"

"If you'll do it, I want you to be my Managing Editor when we get home."  She sucked in her breath and smiled.  "I want us to work together, Blair.  Like we used to.  Together, we're unstoppable."

She hugged him and shouted, "Yes!  Yes I will accept!  I'd love it."  Then, laughing, "We did have some really great times, didn't we?"

"Yeah.  And there are more to come."

"I am picturing us as this dynamic team of investigative reporters!  We can investigate stories together, get leads, write exposes."

"Sounds like something off a 1980s primetime show, but if it's with you, I'm down."

She leaned her head against his shoulder.  Barring his episode in the park at the tail end of the wedding, things had evened out.  For some reason, the peace and tranquility of that frightened her.  She considered her feelings as habit; her whole life with Todd, whenever things seemed ironed and neat,  wrinkles would appear and seem to grow.  "I'm scared, Todd."

"Don't.  I'm okay."

She looked into his face, "What they did to you...I can't imagine what it was like.  I don't even want to.  I can't risk losing you again.  I get scared when I think of it."  Her hand went to her belly.  "Our biggest adventure has to be bringing this baby into the world, together."

"Huh?  I'm not birthin' no more babies."

She slapped his shoulder lightly.  "I mean it.  We have to be there for this, together this time."

"You're not telling me anything I don't dream of every day.  I have to be here to see this baby born, and to see it grow up, both.  I want to raise her.  I want to love her and her mother every minute."

"Okay, then."

"Okay, then.  Don't worry, I'm all right.  Even Ray said it was a normal fallout from what happened."

"I know.  I didn't tell you something."

"What?"

"When you were in your safe place..."

"You can't say it.  You can't say 'catatonic.'  Why?"

"I don't know, it's hard to say it.  It scares me so much, it makes me feel so sick."

"It's all right, Blair.  As hard as it is to understand, that saved me from dissolving away as a person.  I might not have made it without that coping skill.  I thought you knew that."

"I do."  She smoothed her gown, nervously.

"Then, it's all right, go ahead.  What did you want to tell me?"

"One of those men, while you were in your safe haven..."

His heart leaped.  He was so afraid to hear what she was going to say next, yet he could not let her know.  In the past, he would overreact to her, make her not want to tell him things.  He didn't want it to be that way anymore.  He wanted her to trust him more than anyone else.  He feigned nonchalance. "Yeah?"

"One of them came in.  He did things...to you, and I..I saw."

He sighed relief deep in his heart, and she had to hear it escape him.  "All right."  At that moment, he was thanking his stars that it was not what he was fearing.

She started to cry.  "I wanted to scream, but I was afraid.  I was afraid he would do it to me.  I was so scared, Todd."  Her hands were shaking, and her breath was ragged.  "I should have distracted him and made him stop, but I was afraid."  She cried onto his tuxedo shirt.

"No, babe.  No.  You did the right thing.  First, I couldn't feel it.  I didn't know what he was doing to me.  If he had done anything to you, do you think I could have lived with the fact that I was hiding off somewhere while he hurt you?"

She continued to cry.  "I just...I've had dreams about it, too.  I never told you because you're dealing with so much.  I keep running it over in my head, Todd.  It scares me and I feel so guilty that I didn't...that I couldn't.."

"Save me?"  He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead again.  "I didn't feel it, I promise you.  When I was in my safe place, all I felt was what I saw there and heard there and felt there.  It's not like you're aware of anything.  It's like, you're in a different world.  Outside yourself but inside.  It's really hard to explain."

She was beside herself.  Thinking back to The Slice and Dice, as he called him, made her shudder.  He took off his jacket and put it around her.  "What is it, Babe?  I promise you, I wasn't there.  I didn't feel anything.  In fact, I don't even know what you saw.  Do you want to show me where it is?"  He started to unbutton his shirt.  "Where, which one?"  She gingerly pointed to his back, above his shoulder blade, on the right.  It was the one that made her feel sick when she touched it.

"I don't even remember it.  Trust me, on this.  Some of these," he began and then paused, "some of these I know exactly how they got there.  Some, I don't remember a thing.  That one, I can't remember."

"It was awful.  Like a horror movie, only worse.  I was so afraid.  And then I kept thinking, that it had happened to you before, and that sometimes, you were awake.  Oh Todd."  she fell onto him, in tears.

He swallowed.  He would be strong for her.  "But the thing is, it's over.  It's behind us.  You have nothing to be guilty about.  You protected me more, because if anything had happened to you, I wouldn't be able to live.  Now stop crying, okay?"  She nodded, wiping her tears with his hanky.  "Do you want to tell me anything else?  It's all right, trust me.  You can say anything."

She bit her lip, pulling his tuxedo shirt back over his shoulders, and tugging it across his broad, firm chest.  "You know he threatened to..."

He stopped her immediately.  "I know that one.  I was there, for that one.  I was awake, from probably before you realized it, but I couldn't let on for the cameras.  I wanted to kill him."  His anger became evident, "I wanted to take his knife and gut him.  If he had laid one finger on you, I would have done just that."

"You'll do anything for me.  For us," she touched her stomach.

"Yes.  I will do anything for you.  For you both, and Starr, Jack, Sam and Hope.  Anything."  He put his hand over her hair, and smoothed it again, causing some of it to come down from the upswept style.  "How did we get on this terrible subject anyway?  We're on our way to our honeymoon, Blair.  No time for this stuff."

"I love you, Todd Manning."

"I love you, Mrs. Manning."

By the time they had finished declaring to each other, the plane landed in Key West.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Our writers like to hear your feedback. Please leave a comment when you read.