The Devil You Know: Chapter 46

Todd blinked his eyes at Merrie.  “What are you talking about?  What baby daughter?”  He back away from her as he continued.  “If you haven’t noticed, my baby girl has already been a mother herself.”

Merrie shook her head at her brother’s denseness.  “I didn’t mean Starr.  I’m talking about…about the baby Blair is pregnant with.”

Todd just stared before letting out a hearty laugh.  “You’re funny, I’ll give you that.  Were like this in life?”

Merrie glided the two steps between them and laid her hand on his shoulder.  “I’m not joking.”  She saw the realization reach his eyes.  “Blair is pregnant.”

Todd let his mouth hang open.  “Blair…is having a baby?  My baby?  My…daughter?”  His sister smiled brightly ash she nodded.  “But, when?  How?”

“Think back.  The night of Viki’s wedding…” she replied, stringing him along.

Todd mouth lifted into a goofy smile.  “Damn, that room at the Palace really is magic for us, huh?  We made another baby there, just like Jack.”

“I’m sure when you tell your son that, he’ll enjoy the visualization,” she said half-jokingly.

For a minute, Todd enjoyed the image of telling his son just that.  Then a dark shadow rose up from somewhere and he backed away.  Shaking his head, as if to not see the darkness, he said instead, “Someone else will have to tell him.”  With that, he tried to walk away from Merrie.

“Todd!  Don’t you see?  You have to go back.  You were away for so much of Starr and Jack’s childhoods.  You can’t do that to this new baby,” she called as she followed him.

“Starr and Jack were fine without me,” Todd said, even though he knew it was a lie. 

“You’re wrong.  You know you’re wrong and I know you know you’re wrong.”  Merrie realized she had gotten so close, but something had pulled him back.  “Todd, what is it?  What don’t you want to face?”

“There’s a lot I don’t want to face, Meredith.  Don’t go there.”

“But it must be something,” she insisted.  Then she remembered.  “Does it have to do with seeing your brother when you were little?”

Todd turned to her, glaring at her darkly.

In the hospital room, Blair hadn’t let go of Todd’s hand since he’d been moved.  Viki and Starr had tried to move her away, but she hadn’t budged.  But she was beginning to tire.  “Todd,” she whispered, “you have to come back.  We need to get married.  Please don’t leave me.”

Before she could stand up, Kevin Collins came into the room.  “Has there been any change?” he asked.

Blair shook her head, tears rolling down her face.  “What could have caused the trauma?” she asked.

Victor walked in and answered.  “I think it has something to do with the concert when he was seven.  Remember, I mentioned it to you earlier this morning?”

“What about it?” Starr asked, her ears perking up to what her uncle was saying.

Victor looked to Blair who nodded and replied to his niece.  “That night, as he was probably running from the abuse and I was running from who knows what, we ran into each other, almost literally.”

“Wait,” Jack said, breaking his silence.  “You mean you saw him and he saw you.  You even remembered that?”

“Yeah, not until last night,” Victor admitted.  “We were on a street and I just remembered running, from who or what, I don’t know.  I stopped for a minute and when I looked up, my face was staring back at me.”

Starr took in this information and paced for a minute.  “And that would have been enough to scare Dad?”  She turned to Victor.  “Do you remember anything else, because that doesn’t seem like it’s enough to do to him what’s happening now.”

“There is a way to remember,” Kevin began to suggest.  “I could hypnotize you.”

Victor looked put-off by the suggestion.  But then Blair asked, “Do you think him remembering could help Todd.”

Kevin shook his head, unsure.  “Look, this is all built on a lot of supposition.  If it’s connected to that night, if it’s because Todd and Victor saw each other, or if there’s even more to it.”

“But right now, it’s our best lead, right?”  Starr implored.  “Look, Dr. Collins, our father has never been the most forthcoming person in the world,” she said throwing a glare at her uncle, “in either form.  But if this is the reason for all this, isn’t it worth a shot?”

Blair looked at Victor, desperation in her eyes.  “Victor, please?’  She stood up to go to him, but before she even got there, she crumpled to the ground. 

Luckily, Victor was able to catch her before she hit the ground.  “Blair, wake up,” he shouted at her.  Jack ran out of the room to get a nurse but by the time they returned, Blair’s eyes were open.  “Hey, don’t you go getting sick on us.  If anything happens to you with him out of commission, it’s my ass on the line.”

“Sir if you can just step back please,” the nurse said.

Blair woke up further at her voice.  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” she tried to assure everyone.

“Let the experts take a look at you, Blair,” Victor insisted.  As she continued to protest, Victor just gave her a look.

“Alright, but it’s probably just exhaustion.  Between the performance, and the stress Todd has been under for it and with anything else, it probably just took a toll on me as well,” she explained.

“Well, then, we’ll have the doctors confirm that,” Starr said.  “I’ll go with you.”  She ushered her mother out of the room.

Victor walked back to his brother’s bed.  “I’ll tell you something, now you really need to get back.  Look at what this is doing to Blair.”  He sat down in the chair Blair had be in and leaned his cheek in the palm of his hand, looking rather annoyed.  “Is that it?  You remember seeing me?  How can that be so scary?  No, there has to be something else.”  He closed his eyes trying to recapture the memory.  He saw himself running, saw himself catching his breath. Then he looked up and saw his mirror image staring at him. 

Then, all of a sudden, he caught a flash of an inside.  His mirror image was sitting across from him, but he couldn’t hear what he was saying.  Then an instant later, he was in the back of a car, balled up on the floor.  He saw another person there, could almost make out the face, when…a hand came to rest on his shoulder.

Tea was standing there.

“It has to do with that night, at least, right Todd?” Merrie asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Todd yelled as he tried to get away.

Unfortunately for him, Merrie was just as persistent as Viki was when trying to make him cope.  “No, we are going to get to the bottom of this.  I will not let you leave my niece fatherless, do you hear me?”

“Merrie, leave it alone!” he shouted at her.  “Look, whatever it is, I haven’t coped with it in like thirty-five years.  I was fine before, I’ll be fine here.  I’ll just deal with whatever it is wherever I am now.”

Merrie shook her head.  “Todd, you can’t stay here forever.  You need to go back.  Blair won’t survive without you.  If she hadn’t been pregnant with Starr all those years ago, she wouldn’t have made it herself after you were lost in Ireland.  And it was just Starr and Jack that kept her going after you disappeared all those years ago.  Look where it led her.  From one bad choice to another.”

“Including ‘me’, right Merrie?” he asked, of course meaning Victor.

Merrie chose to ignore the dig.  “Todd, you need to face whatever it is that’s haunting you.”  She looked skyward then back at him.  Taking his hand in hers, she tried to ease him with her words.  “If you can’t face them with her, let me help you.”

Todd turned to face her, and in a childlike tone, asked her, “You’ll help me?”  A tear rolled down his scarred cheek.

Merrie’s eyes were wet with emotion.  “Yes, I’ll be right there with you.”

Victor blinked when he saw his wife.  She offered a soft smile.  “No change?” she asked.

Victor shook his head.  “No, but everything is normal.  Well, at least as normal as it could be for him.”  He stood up and they embraced.  “I think it still has to do with that damn recital.”

“The memory you had last night, of meeting him, is that what you’re talking about?” she asked.

“Yeah.  This Dr. Collins said he can hypnotize me and maybe it’ll jog my memory and then, I don’t know, get him to remember?  Does that sound crazy?” Victor asked. 

“You’d do that for him?” she asked.  Things were still not great between the brothers or their wives.  They had all come to silent agreement for peaceful coexistence when in each other’s presence.

“Tea, it’s not just about him.  It’s about us and what was done to us practically from birth,” he replied.  “Yes, I’d do it for him and for the kids.  They need their father.  God knows I was no shining example of it to Starr and Jack and it was all in my head, how he’d be.  And yet…”  He shook his head again.  “I need to know the answers to why just as much as he does.”

“So, I take it you’ll undergo the hypnosis?” Kevin asked from the doorway.

Victor looked over at him and back at Tea.  “You’ll be there with me?” he asked, his voice childlike.

Tea smiled.  “Always.”

“Then let’s do this, as soon as possible,” Victor said.  He turned back to Todd’s prone form.  “I’m going to go get some answers.  You’d better be ready when I get back.”

He headed into the hall and saw Viki.  After informing her about what he was doing, she assured him that she would sit with their brother.  Then he headed off with Tea and Kevin, determined to unlock this mystery that surrounded him and his twin.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Your comments are 'payment' for the work of the authors. Our writers like to hear your feedback. Please leave a comment when you read.