The Fourth Life: Chapter 25

Once inside, Blair stood near the bed, facing him, and he began to undress her, when she suddenly leaned her head back and collapsed, Todd able to quickly grab her around the waist before she fell to the floor.


"Blair?"  He said her name as he put her down on the bed and moved her hair back from her face.  She was out cold.  "Blair?" he raised his voice a decible.  "Babe, no," he said, softer.


She fluttered her eyelids open, and looked at him, "I fell."


"You almost fell, yeah.  What's the matter, babe?"


"So tired, Todd."  She said, falling back into unconsciousness.  He rushed to the phone and called 911.


He went to the bedroom door and shouted, "Starr, Jack?  One of you?"


A moment later, Jack was at the doorway, "Dad?  What's the matter with Mom?"


"She passed  out, help me Jack, get a wet towel from the bathroom."


"Is she breathing?"


"Yes, Jack, please just go and get one."


He hopped up on the bed and knelt next to her, "Babe, please?  Blair, can you hear me?  Open your eyes for me."


Nothing.


Jack returned with the cloth, and watched his father in horror.  "Dad, is she all right?"


"She's going to be okay.  Go get your sister, or Addie, or even Shaun, whoever's there."


You will not give in to the panic.  No sense in that.  You'll be here, like she is for you.  She's just tired.  She's just...


"Todd, what's up?"  Shaun appeared at the door.


"If that ambulance does not get here in five minutes, I'm putting her in the copter.  Will you help me?"


"Of course.  What happened?"


"I just....we were talking and she passed out, right in my arms.  I don't know, she just kept saying she was tired."


Shaun had never seen Todd as horrified as he was right then.  With all he had been through, he was still not tough enough to fight off the terror at a fainting spell had by his wife.  "She's going to be all right, Todd."


"I know."  With no ambulance in sight, and Starr and Jack at the doorway, he said, "Cancel the damn ambulance, she's going in the copter, now.  Tell them to send a team to The Manning Building."


Shaun helped him carry Blair into the helicopter, and Todd directed Jack to call back and cancel the ambulance.  Todd put himself behind the driver's seat.  Starr said, "Dad!  You're not licensed!"


"Your mother needs me, Starr, and I can do it.  Get in, Shaun, and Starr, call Williams and meet us there."  And with that, he was gone, the blades making their familiar loudness echo throughout the yard at Unforgettable.


Shaun was in the back, next to Blair, and was trying to rouse her.  "Blair, come on now."


Todd focused on driving and made certain his concentration was at an all-time high, when all he wanted to do was hold her and make her talk to him.  Fighting trepidation, he focused his eyes more intently on the dashboard area in front of him.  Seeing The Manning Building in the near distance, he got himself ready to land the vehicle.  He could see the traffic in the street below, and an emergency vehicle, most likely the one the kids had secured on the phone, stuck in traffic.  "No, damn it," he said aloud.


"Todd?  Why are we up here?"  She said, from the back.  Shaun held the cold towel to her forehead.


"Babe, you all right?"  His eyes stung with tears.  "You awake?"


"Todd, I feel, funny, I feel...what time is it?"


He smirked, "It's okay, Babe.  It's afternoon, we're together.  Shaun's right there if you need him. At that moment, she leaned over the threw up onto Shaun's shoes.  Todd said, "Like I said, he's right there if you need him."


He landed the copter without a hitch, and ran around to her door.  The EMTs were just scrambling up the staircase to her, and he gently lifted her out, with the help of Shaun, and set her on a blanket on the roof.  "You just lie here, and stay quiet, and rest a minute."


She was half alert, then her eyes widened, "Todd, the baby."


"The baby's okay, baby's fine.  Just relax, Babe."


The EMTs pushed forward and did their work, attaching her to various pieces of equipment and  checking vitals.  Todd said, "She's in her second trimester.  She's going to have a baby."


He could hear a lot of medical jargon being thrown between the men, who worked fast and diligently to get her to a stable point at which to transport her.  Todd said, "I can drive my copter, if it's faster."


"She's not in any danger, Mr...?"


"Manning."


"As in this building?" one said.


"As in this building.  Don't let anything happen to her."


"We won't, sir." They lifted her onto the gurney and Todd felt his heart skip.  "No," he said, and Shaun grabbed him by his shoulders, and said, "Let me call Starr.  The limo can come and get us."


"I have to go with her, Shaun."


"All right then, hurry up.  What about the copter?"


"Fly it home," Todd said, and he couldn't have paid to see the expression on Shaun's face.


***


As the guards passed his room, Zeus looked out, watching one go to the west end and the other stop at the staircase and stand.  How would he do it?  He wasn't sure, he was just positive he had to.  Right then.


He watched for about twenty minutes, before Phoebe, dear that she was, came by, and carried on so loudly, that the staircase guard had to escort her away, and he knew that was his chance.  Tiptoeing out, he zipped his jacket and took the stairs, cautiously, and made his way to the lobby.  If he could get to the front door, he was home free, until bed check.


Phoebe still carrying on, as he could hear her, began to run back toward the stairs, and he ducked behind a pillar and watched as she threw confetti off the stairs and into the lobby.  This set off a few patients who were wheelchair-bound, and one was shrieking as nurses scrambled to her side.  The other was drooling.  Even from where he stood, the drool thread was evident.


The guard chased Phoebe down the stairs and the desk monitor was getting paper towels to sop up the drool.  He went, quietly and inconspicuously, to the bottom of the stairs, and then past the desk, unnoticed.  He opened the front doors and, without looking back, he followed the stone path away from Mountainview.


***


Todd was frantic.  Blair, with tubes up her nose and in her arms, was wheeled at high speed into the ER, and he was tagging along side it, powerless.  I can't do this again.


"Todd," she said, reaching her hand out, and trying to take his.  They whisked her around a corner too quickly and he missed.  His eyes, brimming, made it difficult for him to see her as he tried to keep up.


He pushed himself, and caught up without running, and as she was wheeled into a cubicle, lined with curtains, that blocked his view of her.  As he tried to open them and get inside, a nurse stepped between he and his one true babe, and he lost his cool.  "Get out of my way," he said.


It was clear the nurse was not expecting his response, and she said, "Excuse me?"


He said, "You heard me, lady, get out of my damn way!  That's my wife in there, and you're not keeping her from me."


"Sir, we have to work on her, and you're clearly in the way."


"Listen, I fought my way back from torture to get to her.  She needs me and you're not going to make me leave," he shouted, and noticed everyone was looking at him.  "Move, now."


She took note of his panic, and the sweat on his brow, and the shaking hands he ran through his hair, when up from behind him stepped Shaun.  "Nurse, thank you.  Mr. Manning is very attached to his wife.  She's pregnant and he's very concerned.  They've lost a baby before.  You'll have to excuse his grumpiness."


She rolled her eyes and moved back into the cubicle.  "I can't do this."  Todd said, "I can't," he turned from the curtain and paced.


Shaun followed, "You can.  You will."


"What's wrong with her?  It's my fault, she has not been sleeping well."


Shaun elbowed him, "well, that says somethin,'"


"Not like that.  I keep her awake with my nightmares.  She can't sleep, she's constantly worried about me.  Someone better put Carlo Hesser in a gas chamber soon before I cut his fucking eyes out."  


Shaun noticed three or four people watching, and said, "Hey, Todd, let's go down to the coffee machine, eh?  We'll come right back."


Todd looked at Shaun, and his expression was confused and pained.  Not knowing what else to do, he said, "One minute.  Just for you."


***


Zeus took the visitor pass from the desk and sat and waited.  He would be called in a matter of minutes and needed to ready his thoughts.  He thought back to Christmas, two years earlier, how he and Tea and Danielle had spent it, quiet and alone, decorating the tree, and Danielle running to bed early so that Santa would come sooner.  He had made love to Tea, with the tree twinkling above them.  That was so long ago.  I wonder if I'll ever see her again...or touch her. Keep doing shit like this and you won't.  He hadn't thought about how he would ever get back to Mountainview, and the thought crossed his mind to run and keep going.


"Visitor for inmate Hesser," a voice said.  He stood, acknowledged the guard, and proceeded.  Hesser was behind the visitor glass, and the seat across was open for his use.  He sat.  "Father."


"You.  What a waste of my time."


"Are you going to man up and tell me the truth?'


"Man up?  You're one to talk.  Every thing I've ever tried to teach you about the business, you've rejected.  You're a washout.  Manning has more promise than you.  Not that he'll ever get a chance to use it.  He'll soon be watching me take out his family, one by one, as he stands by and is powerless to stop me.  Now, why are you here?"


"I need to know, and I won't quit before I do."  Zeus filed the threat against Todd's family in the back of his mind.


"Go back to your hole, to that pseudo-prison.  You can't even pay for your crimes in jail, you have to have a cushy mental hospital as your cage."  Then, he thought better of it.  "What's in it for me, if I give you what you want?"


"So you do have a price, then."


"I do, but you can't afford me."


"Try me."


"I want to be free of this place.  That's first.  I want to see my grandchildren."


"So, you are my father."


"I suppose I am, yes."


"I can't do either of those, " Zeus said, "and you've already told me what I want to know."


"I beg to differ my boy.  I have things...many things."


"I've heard what I came for."  Zeus got up to leave.  


Carlo said, "Something inside you must want to know who your mother was."


Zeus stopped, and turned back.  "You know my mother?  You know where she is?"


Carlo sat back and grinned.  He folded his arms.


Zeus sat back down.  "What do you want, old man?"


Carlo said, "Be careful of your words, you must show respect."


"What do you want?"


"I want you at my trial.  I want a way to get at Manning."


"Oh, I'll be there, believe me.  And, I have no ties to Todd, if that's what you think."


"You want your mother?  I want silence.  From you.  You will not testify against me."


Zeus said, "You can't be serious.  You destroyed my life."


Carlo said, "You can go now.  Think it over.  You'll find a way to let me know.  When you forget everything you learned in captivity, and keep your mouth shut at my trial, I will then share the identity of your mother."


Zeus was not ready to go.  "Is she alive?"


Carlo stood., "Guard?"  Zeus watched as his father left him, staring through the glass.


***


They walked back to the cubicle and Blair was sitting up in the bed sipping juice.  The curtains were pulled open, and his face brightened.  "Babe?"


She said, "Todd."


He rushed to her side.  "Are you all right?"


She finished her juice and said, "Yeah, I'm all right.  I was, just so tired."


"Where's Larry?"


"He's on his way."


"Is Sunburst okay?"


"She's fine, Todd.  We're both fine.  I know you gave these folks some trouble earlier.  Not nice."


Larry interrupted, and stepped by Blair's bed on the other side.  "Blair, you've not been doing right by yourself and this little one."


"I know, I have to take care of myself."


"More than that, you're anemic, you have not slept, and you're undernourished.  You've lost twelve pounds, Blair, and you're supporting a life.  You have to do better than this.  Todd, you've got to help her.  She needs to eat well, sleep regularly and keep stress to a minimum."


It was my fault.  All of those things, I should have been making sure of it.  Damn it.


He took her hand.  "Can she go home, Larry?"


"She can.  You just have to make certain that you both put this baby first.  With Blair's age and the fact that she's lost two babies and had premature births, it's got to be a priority.  I'll get the papers for her release and be right back."


"Babe, Shaun will take you home.  I'm going to walk to The Manning Building and bring the copter home.  I have one stop to make.  I expect you to be in bed with a dinner tray when I get there," he said, and he kissed her cheek and left.  On his way off, he said, "I'll rub your feet later.  And I'll cook for you or order you those dumplings you like."


He hurried down the streets until he finally reached The Manning Building, and went to the roof, climbing back into the copter, and starting the engine.  "Those folks at Mountainview won't know what hit them," he said, and headed off.  He'd find a clear area on the lawn to set the chopper down and assured himself they'd never mind.


When he got there, it was slightly more conspicuous than he thought, but he went to the far ends of the grounds and set down.  No one was watching, and he felt secure that he had made a pretty secret landing.  That was, until he topped the first hill and saw a crowd of patients and staff watching him approach.  "Hi!" was all he could think of saying.


Todd continued to walk, and though the crowd was quite a distance from him, he could make out their faces, some were amused and others, mostly the staff, were not.  As he got closer, he called out, "Crashed my car."


Several staff members began to herd the patients back in, and Todd, feeling a slight bit noticeable, hung back, and took a route back to the building that passed the duck pond.  He took his time, for he knew Ray might not even be free to see him, twice in one day, and he wanted to gather his thoughts.  He knew he needed help, so that he could help Blair, and that was all he wanted; to help her.


He perched on the rock by the pond and closed his eyes a minute.  Then he heard a voice, "Hey, what's up?"


It was Zeus.  "Zeus?  What's going on?"


"I hate to do this, but I need some help.  You happened along just in time, actually."


"What can I do for you?"


"I sort of, have to get back in.  I got out without planning my return.  I'm not supposed to leave the building without an escort or permission.  I was just getting close to getting released..."  He stopped himself.  Was this the time and place to tell him about Carlo's threat?


"Why did you leave?"


"Hesser.  I went to see him again."


Todd was shocked by this.  "What did you want to see him about?"


"Todd, he's my father.  He admitted it today.  He knows who my mother is.  Why are you here, with a helicopter?"


"It's Blair, she...she had a near miss.  I was at the hospital, and I freaked out.  I decided to come straight here and see Ray."


"Is she all right?"  Zeus had gotten his answer to the time and place question.


"She will be, thanks."  


"So, do you think you can help me?"


"Sure," Todd said, "just stick by me and let me do all the talking."


They headed to the building and Todd was almost sure they were not going to run into anyone, when the program director crossed their path.  "Hi, Mr. Smythen.  Nice place you got here.  Zeus was just showing me around."


"Does Zeus have a pass to be outside, Zeus?"


"Well, I..."


"No one did just now.  I'm afraid I caused a huge scene.  I landed my helicopter..."


"That was YOU?" Smythen said.


"Yes, it was.  Seems a bunch of the patients came outside to see what was up.  I ran into Zeus here, who was nice enough to help me find the rest of the way to the building."


"What is your name?"


"Todd Manning, sir."


"Mr. Manning, I would appreciate you refraining from landing your vehicle in our yard."


During the conversation, Zeus said, "I think I should be getting back inside, it's getting close to meal time."


"Yes, here, take this, and get inside."  He said, writing a pass, and turned his attention back to Todd.  "This is highly irregular, bringing a helicopter to a private facility."


"Yes, well, irregularity.  I hear kale helps."  The man was not amused.  Todd said, "I'm willing to pay any fine.  IS there one?"


"I don't know, I assume there may be."


Todd took out his checkbook and said, "Here's a check for $5000.  I am sure this will cover it and if it does not, just contact me at that address.  Is it all right if I go in and see my therapist now?"  The man was so awestruck that Todd just said, "Thanks." and walked past him.


Ray, in his office, stood at the window and shook his head.  "Todd's a mess."


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