The Devil You Know: Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Merrie took Todd’s hand and all around them, it grew dark.  When he looked again, he saw his childhood home from the sidewalk.  “Why did you bring me here?” he asked. 

“This is where you need to be,” she said.  Leading him towards the door, she said, “Come on now.”  But the tug of her hand did not budge him.

Todd shook his head from one side to another, just like a child refusing to do something.  “No way.  There’s nothing in there I want to see.”

Merrie pulled again and Todd managed to move.  “We have to, Todd.  But I’ll be there for you.  I promise you that.”

Suddenly, the view changed and they were standing in the living room.  The door opened and a woman and young boy came in.  “Todd, I am so proud of you!  I can’t believe how good you were tonight!  Even better than I thought.”

Todd’s little boy smile lit up the room.  “Thanks mom,” he said as he gave her a hug.  The moved off into the study and saw Peter Manning sitting there with a glass of scotch in his hand. 


“You’re finally home, I see,” this father said.  


“Well, Todd had the recital today.  And you should have seen him.  He was brilliant!  There was even someone there from Julliard who was taken by him!” Mom exclaimed.


“Well, it’s stopping now,” Peter replied.  “No more of this pianist crap.  It’s a waste of time for the boy.”  With that, he stalked back to the wet bar.


His mother followed.  “But, Peter, he has real talent.  They were all saying it.  None of those pieces were easy, even by adult standards.  And he played them,” she turned back to Todd, smiling at him, “so beautifully.”


Dad slammed the decanter down.  “I will not raise a sissy.  That was not the responsibility we were given.”


Mom looked back at Todd, concern in her eyes.  “Peter, not in front of him.”  She walked back to Todd.  “Sweetie, why don’t you go up to your room?  Dad and I need to have a talk.”


Todd looked from one parent to another.  “Okay Mom.  I love you.” He gave her a hug, which she returned and did as he was told. 

It didn’t take long for his parents’ voices to be raised to the point that Todd could hear.  Then he heard a crash as glass was breaking downstairs.  Quickly, he ran to see what had happened and found his father pummeling his mother on the ground.  She was screaming and crying, a bloody heap on the floor.


“DAD, STOP!  You’re hurting Mom!” he cried running towards them.

 Through the pain, Barbara heard her son’s voice.  As loudly as she could muster, she told him, “Run, Todd, get out of here.”


Todd looked at her and then saw his father rise up and turn to him.  He saw a look in his father’s face he had never seen before.  Without thinking, he bolted for the door and was out like a shot.


Todd’s hand gripped his sister’s till the knuckles were white.  She leaned her forehead on his chest.  “I’m so sorry, Todd.”


But he shook his head.  “That’s not it,” he admitted.

In an office at General Hospital, Victor, lying on a couch, held Tea’s hand as he slipped into a sleep-like state and found himself in an auditorium.  The piano music caught his attention and he looked up, seeing his brother on the stage.  When the piece ended, Todd stood up and took his bow.  But as he was straightening up, something caught his attention, unnoticed by anyone else there.  Victor followed his line of sight and saw two people standing in the back.  It was a red-headed woman holding the hand of a small boy, a boy with the same face as the one on the stage.



“Now where getting somewhere,” Victor murmured.


“Do you see something?” Kevin Collins’ voice asked.


Victor had almost forgotten he was under hypnosis.  He found the disembodied voice slightly annoying, but he answered.  “I’m at my brother’s concert, the one when he was seven.  And I think he’s just seen me.”


“Seen you?” came the question.

“Yeah, me and our bitch of a mother,” he replied, noting to himself the woman’s resemblance to the older Irene Manning he had encountered in the library at Llanfair last year.  “We must have come to the concert.”  Victor moved closer to his mother and his younger self, but they turned around and headed out the door.  He followed and saw them get into a limo.  It took off down the street.  All of a sudden, the scene changed.  It was night on a residential street.  The limo from before turned a corner, but a door opened up and a young boy rolled out.  He was shocked for a minute then got off the ground and made a mad dash in the opposite direction.  Victor decided to take off after himself.


He came to a dead stop when he saw his younger self trying to catch his breath, then held his breath by the encounter that was happening just a few feet away.  Standing inches apart from the young Victor Lord, Jr. was the young Todd Manning.  Both boys blinked in unison at each other.

 Victor was so fascinated he almost didn’t notice the two people standing on the other side of the boys.  It was Todd, scarred face and all, and a woman who looked remarkable like their sister Meredith Lord Wolek.


For his part, Todd tore his eyes away from the tableau before him when he saw a familiar face.  His hand still gripping Merrie’s, he heard a strangled cry come out of his throat.

Merrie looked up at him then followed his gaze.  She smiled and led him over to his twin.  Victor’s eyes darted between the two of them until they reached him.  Merrie smiled, one very similar to Viki’s.  “I am so happy to meet you, baby brother,” she said shyly.


While this unlikely meeting was taking place on some other plane of existence, in another part of the hospital, Starr and Jack were both sitting as their mother paced back and forth.  Her worry wasn’t for her; she knew she had been putting herself under too much stress lately.  But the idea of Todd, lying up in a room, staring at nothing, frightened her more than she could tell. 


“Mom, just please sit down.  You just passed out, you really should rest,” Starr implored her mother, though she knew it would do no good. 


“Starr, I’m too worried about your dad.  I’ve never seen him like this.  Todd Manning, scared into catatonia?”  Blair said, the words, for some reason, ironically funny to her.


“Well, Dad has had…mental issues, right?”  Jack asked gingerly.  “I mean, he did fake insanity once before.”

Blair remembered back to one of Todd’s least proud moments.  It was a rough time; that much was for sure.  It was what drove him away from her for a long time. 

Her memories were interrupted by the return of the doctor.  They had checked her over and taken a blood sample before.  Now it all they had to do was hear the results.

“Ms. Cramer, I have some test back, but I do have a few questions as well.  Are you on any type of birth control?” the doctor asked.

Starr’s eyebrows shot up.  She had an eerie feeling what direction this conversation was going to take.


Blair was so distracted by thoughts of Todd, she barely heard the question.  She answered, “Yes, I’m on the pill.”


“And have you been taking it regularly?” came the next question.


Blair turned and thought about it some more.  “Well, I think so.  I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, so I may have missed some doses.  Why?”


Jack, standing in the back of the room, had never heard his mother be this dense.


“You’re pregnant,” the doctor replied.

Blair was still distracted until...”WHAT?!”

“You’re not far along, but if you have been under stress it may have taken a physical toll on your body and led to your fainting earlier.”  The doctor referred back to her chart.  “I’d estimate you are still very early, only a couple of weeks.  I’d like for you to come back and we can do a full workup.  Please, try and keep your stress levels down, for your own health as well as your baby’s.”  With that she left.

 Blair walked over and leaned against the exam table, her hand finding her stomach.  “A baby?” she asked herself, searching in her mind for when this could have happened.  Then she went back to the night of Viki’s wedding.  Todd had recreated one of their most memorable nights then, in the room at the Palace hotel.  A laugh bubbled up in her, a joyous, mischievous laugh.  She couldn’t wait to tell him just how much they had recreated.

Starr and Jack thought their mother had completely lost it.  “Mom, are you alright?” he daughter asked.

Blair turned to them and drew them into a hug.  She kissed the top of Jack’s head.  “I’m better than alright.”  She looked at Starr, smiling again.  “I have to go tell…tell your father.”  With that, she hurried out of the room.  Starr and Jack followed after her.

When she got to Todd’s room, Viki was sitting there, hold her brother’s hand.  “Blair, is everything alright with you?  Victor asked me to sit here while you were gone.”

She ignored her sister-in-law and grabbed Todd’s hand.  “Now, you listen to me,” she commanded.  “You need to come back here, more than you know.  I need you, but then again, I always have needed you.  Our children, Starr and Jack and little Sam, they need you.  They were without you for too long.”  She took a deep breath before she began her final part.  With Viki and her two elder children standing in the room at GH, she said, “But mostly, our new baby needs you, needs to know you and love you, just like all of us do.  So come back right now.”  She waited, expectantly, but nothing changed.   



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