Dance with the Devil: Chapter 49

Midday that Sunday and Damian Spinelli was returning to Port Charles after a stay in Llanview.  He was rather upset as he was unable to uncover any new leads in his investigation into the disappearance of Victor Lord, Jr.  As he was driving along the highway, approximately ten miles away from Port Charles, a van that had been on the side of the road pulled back on rather quickly.  Spinelli had to swerve to avoid hitting it, and unfortunately, wound up stuck in a ditch on the side of the road.  The other vehicle sped down the highway, ignoring the crash that had nearly happened as the PI got out to examine the damage.  “Oh, my poor car!” he cried as he saw that the car was stuck in mud.  He tried several times to move the car, but was unsuccessful.  He was about to call for assistance when he noticed a blue tarp back a ways from his present location.  He crept over to investigate and, moving the plastic, found the body of the man at the center of his investigation.  In shock, the young man felt for a pulse and miraculously, found one.  He immediately dialed the authorities.

Todd had no idea what had possessed him to invite Tina and Cord over to a family dinner that night, but here they were and neither of them had provoked any outbursts from him.  Cord’s Texas twang hadn’t gotten on his nerves and Tina was actually being sweet to him and Blair.  There had to be some ulterior motive at work, but Todd had no idea what it was.  Sarah was also over and he basked in the company of his niece.  Since she had been a little girl, he had always loved her and had missed her when he had returned to Llanview in 2000.  She had grown into a remarkable woman who had become a wonderful friend to Starr.

Also over were Natalie and Liam, with the promise of John McBain soon to come.  While he had been able lately to tolerate Natalie, Todd still held a grudge against her significant other, especially after busting in on he and Blair in their afterglow months ago.  But, as much as he was sketchy about those two, he had been able to charm their little boy.  Sarah had laughed at Todd’s interaction with Liam, it reminding her so much of her and her brother when they were children. 

Blair had been a gracious hostess and only did a little digging at the expense of her once and future sister-in-law.  Though they were never going to be close, they had decided to put aside any differences for Todd’s sake, at least until after he was fully recovered.  That was the only thought that comforted Todd, as their thaw reminded him, uncomfortably, of Blair and Tea’s friendship when he had returned last year. 

As Todd sat there eating, his doorbell rang.  Natalie looked at her watch.  “That’s probably John.  He said as he was leaving they needed him for something,” she said as she got up to answer the door.  When she returned with the cop, he was all flushed. 

Todd noticed his expression.  “What’s up? You look like you have news,” he said.

“A few hours ago, a driver on the outskirts of town nearly got into an accident with a van pulling back onto the highway.  He drove into a ditch on the side of the road and when he got out to check the damage he noticed a tarp on nearby.  When he went to have a look, he found Victor Lord, alive, wrapped in it,” John explained.  “They’re rushing him to General Hospital now.”

“What?” Blair breathed out.  “Who found him?  Where was he?  How did he get there?”

“As to the who, it was a private investigator, Damian Spinelli, who was ironically coming back from Llanview,” John said in a mock surprise tone as he threw a glare towards Todd.  “And the where was about ten miles out.  We have not idea how or why, but it appears he was just dumped.”

Todd was unexpectedly holding his breath.  Then he maneuvered himself towards the door.  “I need to get to the hospital,” he stated.  After a few minutes, it was agreed that Sarah, Starr and Natalie would stay behind to keep an eye on Jack and the little ones, while Cord and Tina would also make their way to the hospital.  Once they had a handle on the situation, Natalie would call her mother to let her know what had happened.

They had actually gotten to the hospital before the ambulance that was transporting Victor had arrived.  When it did got there, Todd tried to get to the gurney but was kept back by the staff.  He had been overcome with a strange feeling since John had made his announcement at the house.  He just felt like he needed to be near his twin. 

Blair was watching him watch the emergency team bring Victor in and flashed back to the night they had brought Todd in after the shooting.  She was shocked to see the same fear in his eyes that she remembered in her.  “Hey, he’ll be alright, Todd.  He’s a Lord, and if you haven’t noticed, you all are rather hard to kill,” she tried to joke.

Todd appreciated her words and reached for her hand.  Grasping it, he kissed her fingers as Elizabeth Webber approach the family.  Todd smiled grimly at the nurse when she asked what there doing there.  “A, ah, family member was brought in,” Todd answered vaguely.  “Could you see if you can get any information from the doctors?” he went on to ask, flashing her a charming smile.

Elizabeth smiled back and went to check.  Returning a few minutes later, she reported, “He seems to be undernourished, but also there are a lot of drugs in his system.  They aren’t sure what any of them are, but they’ll be running a toxicology panel soon.  We should know shortly.”

“Do they know if he’ll be alright?” Tina asked, a worried tone in her voice. 

“It’s too soon to tell,” the nurse replied.  “We will keep you updated when we learn anything else.”

They family waited for answers for the next few hours.  Finally, Dr. Steve Webber came out of the trauma room and over to them.  “Mr. Manning, the man that room, is he a relative of yours?  My sister said you wanted to know his condition.”

Todd’s mouth suddenly went dry as he said the words, “He’s my brother.  My twin brother.”  When Steve gave him a look, Todd merely answered it with, “It’s complicated.”

Steve shook his head, but made his report.  “Mr. Lord,” he read the name off his chart, “has been suffering from dehydration and malnourishment.  I’d estimate he’s been without for a day or so.  He has a number of unidentified drugs in his system that seem to be acting on his neurological  system.  Right now, he is unresponsive to verbal communication but we are working to identify the drugs and expel them from his body.  If we can do that, he may recover.  As to long term damage, we can’t even begin to speculate at this time.  He’s going to be moved to ICU once we get him stabilized.”  Steve looked at the family.  “Do any of you know where he’s been?”

Blair looked at Todd and Tina as she spoke.  “For the past year, we thought he was dead, killed by a gunshot wound to the chest.  We only recently learned that he was alive and we think he was being held captive, but as to the where, we have no idea.”

Steve nodded.  “As I said, he should be able to be moved shortly.  When that occurs, we’ll come let you know and you can see him.”

As he walked away, Todd closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind.  He thought, for a crazy moment, that he may be able to communicate with Victor.  But there was nothing there.  When Blair saw him, he smiled sheepishly.  “Just thought I try the psychic twin thing.”

Blair bent down to look him square in the eye.  “What are you really thinking?”

“The twin brother that I hated from the minute I laid eye on him and tried to kill is lying in a room ten feet away from me, drugged up with iffy chances of recovery, and I actually want him to stick around,” Todd replied.  “His ‘death’ was the start of this mess, more so that my return.  He may hold some of the answers, and he damn well better make it so I can get them.”

As they were sitting there in a seamlessly never-ending wait, the phone rang at Llanfair and Jessica picked it up.  “Natalie, hey, how’s everything in Port Charles?” she asked her twin sister.

“Listen, is mom there?” came Natalie’s response.  After a minute, her mother came on the line.  “Mom, I have news for you and I think you should sit down.”

Viki looked at Jess, Clint and Danie.  “Alright, but I’m putting the phone on speaker.”  As she did, she sat down and Clint took her hand.  Fearing the worst, she said, “What do you need to tell me?” taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.

“They found Victor alive today.  He’s at General Hospital now,” her daughter announced. 

Viki opened her eyes, unable to believe what she had been told.  “Are you sure?” she called out.

Natalie nodded.  “This all just happened in the last few hours.  Todd, Tina, Blair and Cord are down there now waiting for more answers but from the way John described it to me, it didn’t sound that bad.”

Viki squeezed her eyes shut, saying a short prayer of thanks.  She opened her eyes and Clint nodded.  “We’ll be down as soon as possible.  Let Todd or Tina know.”  With that, she ended the call.  Clint embraced her and got up to call the pilot. 

Viki turned to Danie, who had a stunned expression on her face.  “Wait, but he…How is he alive?” she asked.  Looking at Viki and Jess, she could see something was up.  “You knew about it?”

Viki let out a sigh.  “Darling, it’s been an unbelievable situation.  I promise you, we will explain it on the way there.”

Back at the hospital, the usual hub of activity was buzzing around as Dr. Ewen Keenan walked over to the nurse’s station.  Elizabeth was there and he leaned over the counter at her.  “Hey, what’s going on?” he asked.

“Oh, the usual.  We have a little boy who fell out of tree, a severe migraine, but the unusual case is Victor Lord Jr.,” she said, pointing to Todd, Tina and their spouses.  “He was found alive today and they brought him here.”

Ewen raised an eyebrow.  “He really is alive?  What’s his condition?”

Elizabeth smiled, a bit confused.  “You know I can’t tell anyone but family about his condition,” she answered. 

“Yes, of course,” he agreed.  “What are you doing later?”

“I’ve been on a double shift all day so all I want to do is go home and sleep.  Why don’t we try for lunch tomorrow?” she suggested.

He smiled at her.  “Soundly lovely.  I’ll meet you here, say, eleven thirty?”  When she nodded to the affirmative, he walked away, but paused to look back at the Manning/Lord family. 

Steve Webber approached them.  “They’re just getting him settled so you can go see him in a few minutes.  Just two at a time, though.”

Todd and Tina nodded.  “Has there been any change?”

“He does seem to be responding to treatment,  so that make me hopeful for a full recovery,” he said before he walked away.

When they were signaled, the brother and sister entered the ICU room.  Victor lay there, tubes and wires connected to him.  For a minute, Todd felt sorry for the guy, but when he spoke, he chose to cover it up with a joke.  “Look, he’s got more brain activity than you,” he said to his sister.

Tina rolled her eyes.  “Don’t you ever stop?  No, don’t answer that,” she decided.  As she looked at him, she said, “This is the first time since you two where born that we’ve been in the same room together.”  She shook her head.  “He looks so helpless.”

Tina sat down on a chair as Todd reach for Victor’s hand.  Since his brilliant twin psychic thing didn’t work, he thought he’d give the old verbal one a try.  “Listen to me, you jackass.  You’d better make it, because there’s a lot to settle between us.” 

As if to answer, Todd felt his hand squeezed.   



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