Hope from the Ocean: 66

Instantaneously, two things happened.  Aiden, happily shouted out, "How do ya know my parents, Paddy?" and Todd, coming out of Lily's embrace, collapsed to the ground.

"Oh, Dear Goodness!"  Lily cried out, and Aman, who had seen it coming when Todd's knees buckled, was there almost in time to catch him as he fell.  

Kneeling on the ground beside Todd, Aman looked to Lily and Aiden, and said, "This is too like the past.  Sort of gives me the screaming abdabs, it does."

Lily also worked herself to the ground.  A large, round (but lovely) woman, she did her best to get to the place on the other side of Todd, and as she did, Aiden could hear Todd's cell ringing.  Lily said, "My God, does he have an alarm attached to him?"

Aiden smiled to himself, and said, "No, Mam, let me see," and crouching, he fished the phone out of Todd's pocket.  It showed "OTB" in the digital screen.  Somehow, Aiden had known it was Blair.  He answered.  "Hello."

"Don't try and sugarcoat this for me, Aiden.  What's happened?"  her voice resounded on the other end.

***

"That was quite a bit of writing you did the last time we had a session, Bea."  Ray said.  

She nodded.  Her disposition seemed similar to in the past, but with one change.  Her face was lighter, her eyes were smiling when she smiled.

He said, "So, what are your thoughts since then?"

She shrugged, and got up, walking to the window.

Ray said, "I have a pad here, if you want to talk."

She went and got the pad, and he saw her writing with a flourish that spelled drawing.  She turned it to him.  There was a large smiling face, and a group of smaller ones, smiling, one with a little scar on the right cheek.  In the middle were the words, "I so wish I could talk."

"I understand that wish.  Maybe, in the future, when you're better, you could see a doctor about that."

Doctors are not nice.  They scare me.

Ray said, "I'm a doctor, Bea."

You are Todd's friend.  There's a difference.

"Todd has other friends that are doctors."

My son has a lot of friends, doesn't he?

"He has a good amount of friends, yes.  He's come a long way, Bea."

Do you think he is happy, like these smiley faces?  Do you think his family is happy?  Blair, and the children?

"Do they seem happy to you?"

They seem to love each other more than breathing.

"Hmf.  I like that one.  Good comparison.  Bea, do you want to talk about The Time of Dark, or what you wrote?"

She shook her head "no" vehemently and walked back to the window.

He said, "I think there are a few things you might want to talk about.  Like Mitch, for example."

She turned and looked at him.  Taking the pad again, she wrote:  Mitch was not a bad man.  I loved him.  He was evil, sometimes, I just couldn't see because he . . . saved me from Peter.

"That makes sense to me.  He saved you from a very evil man, so he didn't seem evil.  There's no shame in that."

Mitch was never bad to me.  He never hurt me.  I thought he did.  At first, I was jumbled, and confused.  I thought he hurt me, but he never did.  I think Mitch loved me.

Ray said, "I think he did, too.  In fact, I believe he said so."

She didn't seem to care.  She wandered around to the chair, sat down, legs under her, and began drawing.  

"Bea?  What is next for you?"

She smiled.  See my son's new baby born and hold her.  Tell Blair and the children I love them, and maybe live with Todd and the family.  Tell them all I am sorry for what happened to Todd and that I wasn't strong enough to stop it.  Learn to talk, maybe.  Be a better mother, and be part of my son's life.  Is it too late, Ray?

"No, Bea, it's never too late for that."

***

"The signal is piss poor here, Blair," Aiden said.  "He's all right, just had a little bit of a surprise."

"Then let me talk to him."

"He's out like a light in Dublin at four a.m.  Fainted, dead away."

No.  God.  "What happened, tell me what caused this?"

"He met my parents.  Aman and Lily O'Farrell.  My Mam and Dad, they know him."

Blair gasped so loudly, and rushed her hand to her mouth, that she dropped her cell.  Tina, retrieving it, said, "Aiden?"

"Tina, Little Tina.  I just saw my parents again, and they're fine.  A reunion to be remembered, Todd keeled over.  He knew them."

With bewilderment in her eyes and in her voice, she said, "Aiden?  Why?  How?"

"No telling.  I haven't found that out yet."

Blair, beside herself with tears, began dressing for cool weather.  Tina said, "Oh no, you're not.  You can't, Blair."

"I can, and I will."

Aiden, hearing the commotion, said, "What is it, Lass, what is the problem?"

"The problem is that . . . it's too long to explain, just that Blair thinks she is coming to find you."

Aiden remained calm, and said, "Ask her how to get to the O'Farrell cottage."

Tina did as he asked.  Blair fell silent and still, and began sobbing into her hands.  Tina moved to be next to her, and put an arm around her shoulders.  "She's distraught.  There's history, there's . . ."

"I know, there's more to this than either ya or I am aware of, there is."  Aiden said, "But she can't come and try and find us.  Too much traveling, and to be honest, she'll never find it without a guide.  Tell Blair to stay there and wait it out.  He'll be fine," Aiden said, looking down, "I've got him.  Let me talk to her."

Todd began to stir, "Blair?  No, she . . . Where the Hell am I?"  He looked to the faces over him, and said aloud, "It's easy, Todd, you're on This is Your Life: Ireland Edition."

Aiden, ignoring Todd's snark, said, "Blair, please.  Ya can't upset yaself this way, there's a babby on the way, and Todd's . . ."

He didn't get to finish, because Todd snatched his phone back and said into it, "Babe, no crying, stop."

"Todd!  Are you . . .?"  she couldn't finish.

"I'm okay.  I didn't eat much, the copter ride, change in pressure, and seeing this, whoa, wait until you hear this one."

"What is it?  Are you all right Todd, please?"

"I'm fine, I'm okay.  It's just . . . well, Aiden's parents look a heck of a lot like Aman and Lily O'Farrell who took care of me in '95 when I was shot."

Blair couldn't speak for a moment.

Todd said, "Hello?"

"I'm here," she said, wishing she weren't.  She wished she were beside him, holding him.

"Anyway, it's them.  I'm all right.  Let me help Aiden out, as we planned, and then I'll deal with the next thing."  He sounded weak.

"What's the next thing?"  she asked.

"Getting you out here to meet them.  They saved my life.  There would be no me, or me and you, Jack, or Little Ray if these two hadn't taken my shattered bones and pieced them back together before sending me off to the experts."  He paused, and could hear her crying in the background.  "Really, Babe, before this phone shuts off, or loses you, just let me help Aiden with this.  Then, I'll be back and I'll bring you out here to meet them.  I promise.  Nothing will happen to me, Babe.  Nothing's going to keep me from you and my baby girl, and the kids."

Lily, who had been listening intently, was filled up with tears.  She said, "My God, another babby, Todd.  Ya had a babby on the way the last time you were with us.  Saints be praised, what are the chances?"

Blair could hear the woman.  "Is that Lily?"

"Yeah, that's her," he said.  

Blair knew the call would not hold long.  Through her tears and the static on the other end, she said, "Tell her thank you for caring for my man, then and now."

"I will.  Babe, please don't cry.  Please don't upset Jewel.  Everything's okay, and it won't be long, I'll . . ."

She closed her eyes, squeezing them shut.  The phone went back to the homescreen in her hand.  She didn't bother to try and call him back.  She just cried.

Tina, not fully understanding, went back to her sister-in-law's side, and put both arms around her, hugging her to her chest.  "Blair, it's going to be okay," she heard herself say, and then it occurred to her that she wasn't even sure it was.

"He needs me," she said, "And I'm here.  I should have argued with him more.  We never should have been separated."

"Do you want us to go and find him?"

Blair thought a minute, and then pulled herself to sitting.  "No.  No, he said, wait.  I'll wait.  We'd never find them, never."

"Blair?"

"Yeah?"

"What is this about, out there, with Aiden and Todd?"

She closed her eyes, and tears squeezed out of the corners.  "It's about . . . sharing mothers, I think, in some mystical way.  I don't know what else to say to describe it.  It's just . . . well, it's just the way Todd's life goes, and where ever his life leads, mine goes.  Always," she said.

The room remained quiet.

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