Dance with the Devil: Chapter 10

He opened the door to the penthouse and headed over to the bar.  Grabbing a bottle, he opened it and considered drinking it from there directly.  He kept replaying in his head what had just happened at the hospital.  The slap Tea had given him and John McBain holding her back as she continued to go after him, the unreadable look on Blair’s face, even though she had known the truth for a time, Sam holding her baby close to her, looking like she would never let him go. 

 

“I’m so sorry,” he said to Tea.  He looked over at Sam.  “I never meant to hurt you, either of you.”  When neither of the responded, he waved them off, as if to dismiss them.  Yet, he was the one who left. 

 

“Great job again Manning.  Can’t you ever do anything right?”  Ever since he was twenty-two, it felt like he had done nothing right.  Even when he had the world at his fingers, $30 million dollars in the bank and a gorgeous woman at his side, he still couldn’t make anything work. 

 

He looked at the bottle again, deciding to do this the old fashioned way.  He put the bottle down and picked up a crystal glass, almost examining it.  As he reached for the bottle, he heard a noise ring out three times.  He found himself lying on his stomach, intense pain radiated all over his back and his clothes becoming moist. 

 

A voice called out to him as he felt himself looe consciousness.  “You think you’re so superior, Thomas Manning.  But you met your match in me.”  He looked up to see a blond staring down at him.  His eyes were loosing focus, but he heard footsteps walking out.  “I think our business is finished, don’t you?”  The footsteps then quickened as other voices could be heard.

 

“Todd,” Blair called as she knocked on the open door.  When no answer came, Blair called out again.

 

“Todd! Oh my god, Todd!” She launched herself into the room, to where his body lay on the floor.

 

Carly could be heard on the phone saying “I’m in the Penthouse suite of the Metrocourt.  A man has been shot.  Send help quickly.”  She ended the call and he sensed her at Blair’s side as Blair turned Todd over and cradled him in her lap. 

 

“Todd, you stay with me, you hear!  You hang on.  Help is coming,” she said through her tears. 

 

“What, no melon-baller available?” he asked, his characteristic smirk on his face.

 

“Oh, you stupid son of a bitch!”  She shook him.  “You stay with me!”  He could tell she had looked around then at Carly and back at him.  He could tell the other woman had moved to the bathroom to grab towels, hoping they would slow the bleeding.  “Did you see who did this to you, Todd?”

 

His breathing was getting shallow, but he tried to form the words.  She brought her ear to his lips as he was able to only get out one small part of the answer. “He…”  Before he could finish that, blackness engulfed him and he welcomed it, believing that it had finally taken him for the last time.

 

Todd’s eyes opened up and he looked around to figure out where he was.  Then he felt Blair in his arms as he remembered it was a hospital in New York.  She was stirring as well.  “What time is it?” he asked her.

 

She checked the watch on her wrist.  “Nearly seven in the morning,” she informed him.

 

He looked at her.  “You needed that sleep.  What I’ve put you through the last few days…hell the last few months, years, decades…”

 

“Stop, stop it.  We have to move forward,” she said as she planted a light kiss on his lips.  Then she moved off the bed and stretched, the aches in her back bothering her.  She went to the sink to splash water on her face.  “I’m going to find some coffee.  I’ll be back shortly.”  She walked out of the room and made her way to the nurse’s station. 

 

Elizabeth Webber was on duty again, looking over some charts.  She noticed Blair approaching.  “Is Mr. Manning awake?”

 

Blair nodded.  “Yes he is.”  She looked back towards the room.  “He needed the rest.”

 

“So did you,” Elizabeth said.  “I saw you two on the bed before I went off shift.  Since you weren’t really in the way, I explained to the nurses coming on that Dr. Webber had authorized you staying there.”  She looked a little sheepish as she smiled.  “I may have told her a little white lie.”

 

Blair smiled.  “Thank you for that.”  She leaned against the desk for a minute.  “Through some of our worst times, I’ve still been able to fall asleep in his arms.”

 

Elizabeth understood.  “You have that kind of love?”

 

Blair had to nod.  “Yeah, we do.”  As she began to make her way back to the room, the elevator pinged and off stepped Starr, Viki, Tina and Sarah. 

 

Starr saw her Mom’s clothes and deduced where she had been all night.  Blair cut off any lecture she knew was forthcoming with a look as Elizabeth came over to explain, “Dr. Webber said it was alright for her to stay,” defending Blair from any comments that were about to be to made. 

 

The women moved towards the room as Sarah stopped for a minute.  Tina noticed and indicated to the other to go ahead in.  “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” she asked.

 

Sarah look at her uncle through the window.  “It just seems so unreal,” she said turning to her mother.  “I know you and dad explained it all, but, seeing him in there, it just brought back so many memories.”  She turned away from her mother.  “What if he hates me?”

 

Tina looked confused.  “Why would he hate you?”

 

“Because I didn’t know.  I didn’t realize that it wasn’t…him!  It wasn’t Uncle Todd!” Sarah exclaimed. 

 

Tina wrapped her arms around the her daughter.  “Sarah, you have nothing to be ashamed of.  It wasn’t just you.  It was Viki and Blair and Starr.  It was the worst for your cousin, because she believed first.”  She turned Sarah towards her.  “And believe me, he gave us all hell for it.  Blair especially.”  A sneaky smile crossed her face.  “What I wouldn’t give to have seen that.”   

 

Sarah looked into the room and nodded to her mother.  Tina led her in.  “Todd, there’s someone here who I know you haven’t seen in a long time.”  She stepped away and Sarah walked in.  Her breath caught in her throat as she saw his scar and she immediately remembered every detail, up to and especially walking down the aisle of St. James’ for his wedding to Blair.  She took two steps and they were embracing. 

 

Todd had seen her outside and was waiting for her to come in.  Before there was his Shorty, there had been Sarah, the first little girl who had stolen his heart.  That had even been before he ever realized he was her uncle.  They broke the embrace, and Sarah smiled at him and he returned it.  “Wow, you’ve grown,” he said.

 

“Well, it’s been, how many years?  Kids tend to do that,” she ducked her head, almost embarrassed.

 

“Look at you.  Starr tells me you’re a band promoter or something,” he said, almost in awe of her.  In his mind, she was still the moppet who was throwing rose petals at him and Blair on their wedding day. 

 

“Yeah, that’s what brought me to town.”  She turned to Starr, saying, “I can’t think of a lot of singers named Starr Manning, and with this new club in town, I figured I get myself a job here for a while.  But when she told me about you and everything that’s happened…”

 

Todd waved her off.  “Ah, no more trouble than I usually cause.”  As if on cue, John McBain strode into the room with Anna Devane.  After making some introductions, Tina and Sarah excused themselves.  Viki chose to stay with Todd, Blair and Starr, hoping to help with anything.

 

John began.  “We have a lot to cover, Manning.  Everything that happened with Sam and Tea’s babies, your shooting, and anything that could connect the two.”  He looked at Anna.  “I guess the first question I have is, did you really think you’d get away with it?”

 

As the three women in his family protested, Todd held up his hand.  “To answer your question, John, no, I never thought I’d get away with it.  That’s why I didn’t want to go along with it in the first place.”

 

“And yet you did go ahead with it?”  Anna asked. 

 

“Well, yeah, but only after…Look that woman I met at the shack, she told me knew Sam and that Sam was probably there to abandon the kid, that she didn’t want it.  She kept insisting that it was for the best and that I couldn’t break Tea’s heart.”  He looked up at Viki.  “I kind of told her about killing Victor and that I swore to Tea that I would save her son.  Very untypical of me, as I don’t generally go broadcasting my life story.  She was very sympathetic when I was telling her that stuff.  And when Sam crashed into the shed, and I heard a baby crying, after I realized it wasn’t Tea’s, that it was coming from outside, I was about to bring him in when Tea saw me.  She thought, she assumed it was hers and that I had saved him.  I tried to tell, I really did, but then the woman came back and assumed she had been able to revive the baby.  When I showed her Sam, though, she changed.”

 

Anna nodded her head.  “And this woman was Heather Webber?”

 

Todd nodded.  “I didn’t get her name originally, but she showed up at the hospital and she seemed to know all about me.  She even called me Thomas.  No one ever calls me Thomas,” he said with a disgusted look on his face.  “She even introduced herself to Tea, and made reference to what happened.  I tried to come clean to Tea then, but Heather kept talking over me, like to shut me up or something.”

 

“That is true.  Todd did seem like he wanted to tell me something that day and even before that, the day they brought me in here,” another voice piped up behind everyone.  They all turned and saw Tea.  “And Heather was very interruptive.”

 

Todd swallowed.  “Delgado.”  She looked down her nose at him and he forced his eye away from her.  Blair stepped forward to remove the other woman from the room, but Todd stopped her.  “She has a right to know what really happened.  Besides, I’m already in here.  If she does anymore damage, they can patch me up quickly.”

 

“Then you got Tea back to Llanview as quickly as you could and came back to, what?”  John asked.  “You wanted to keep an eye on your partner?”

 

“She was never my partner.  She did become a thorn in my side and a constant reminder of what I had done,”  Todd said angrily.  “I did some research when I got back and I saw the sterling reputation of Heather Webber and I realized just how wacko she was.”  He lay his head back on the pillows. 

 

“OK, backing away for the baby switch for a moment.  The day of the shooting, you revealed all here at the hospital and then went back to your room at the Metrocourt.  What happened in the room?” Anna queried. 

 

Todd took a deep breath.  “I got into the room and was trying to choose between glass or bottle.  Then I heard the three shots behind me.  A figure walked into whatever eye line I had and basically taunted me, said I thought I was so superior and that I had met my match.  Then the next thing I remember was Blair coming in, followed by Carly and both of them were trying to keep me conscious.”

 

Blair nodded.  “I asked him if he knew who had done that but all his said was ‘He’.  It was only later who I realized who it could be.”

 

Anna walked around, gathering her thoughts.  “Alright, you are certain that it was Heather Webber in your room and that she shot you?”

 

Todd nodded his head.  “Yeah. Positive.” 

 

John grunted.  “There is one problem,” he said, looking at Todd.  When Todd shot his a confused look, John elaborated.  “We don’t know where Heather is.  She hasn’t been seen since the night of the shooting.”

 

Tea cleared her throat.  “There is another problem,” She looked at Todd as she said, “Dr. Lee informed me that the baby who died, the baby who was brought in with Sam Morgan…” she paused, reining in her emotions, “that baby can’t be mine either.”      

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