Chasing the Monsters: 12

After spending some quality time with the children, Todd put Ray, Sam and Jewel to bed, and came back to the master bedroom, where he planted himself on the couch.  Jack had started a small fire for them.  Blair said, "I'm taking a shower, all right?  Be right out," and went into the bathroom.  The water began running, and Todd, cradling a beer in his hand, brought to him by Jack, said, "I'm glad you're not anywhere near this stuff anymore."

"Me too," Jack said.

"In fact, I don't even need this."  He put it down on the table, unopened.

"I don't know, Dad, you sort of seem like you might."

He leaned slightly forward, "No, not really.  I have everything I need."

Jack fell silent for a moment.  "Dad, what's wrong?"

"Wrong?"

"When you got off the copter, you seemed sort of, strange."

"I guess Chicago will never agree with me."

"Oh."  Jack understood, but also realized that he didn't know much of it, just that it was bad.

"What did you do today?"  Todd asked his son.

"I went to school.  Tomorrow I go to work."

"At The Sun?"

"Yeah.  It will be better than the first day."

"Well, that's good, right?"

"Yeah.  I guess.  I want to talk to you, but not sure if this is the right time."

"It's always the right time to talk to me, Jack."

"Well, Mom and I sort of had a little clash."

"Clash.  What does that mean, exactly?"  He leaned forward a bit, "I don't want you to ever disrespect your mother."

"I wasn't.  I mean, I said something, she didn't like it.  But, the clash was good, I guess.  It led to other things."

"What did you say that she didn't like?"

"I was frustrated after work.  I said something about you not having to work your way up."

He looked down and half smiled, "Hmf.  That would piss her off, for sure."

"Well, it did."

"Yep."

"She went into a whole tirade about it.  How you went through a lot, had only one friend in the world, all that."  

His son's mannerisms at times were so like Blair, and then, in an instant, he momentarily thought he was looking into a mirror.  He said, "Did she tell you who the one friend was?"

"Not until I asked, but yeah.  It was her."

"Yep.  The best friend I ever had, and still is."

"It's cool.  You guys, I mean."

He nodded.  He said, "Yeah, she's quite a woman, your mother."

"She told me I can talk to you, or that I should."

"Sure, what's up?"

"I just want to know why this means so much to you, this college thing?  Why didn't you finish?  Wasn't it because you got the inheritance and you quit, or . . .?"

Todd grabbed the beer off the table and opened it.  Swigging, he said, "No.  I thought you would have figured this out.  I was in jail.  Remember?"

"I . . . then?  During that time?  I think I was confused."

"I lost college when I . . . hurt Marty.  I went to jail.  College was lost to me after that.  I was in there a while, then did other bad things along the way."

"How did you get out?"

"At first, I escaped.  Broke all the rules, thought I was bigger and badder than the system.  My anger . . . it was pretty much a take-over."  Todd had thought Jack knew everything.  "Later, I was pardoned."

"You mean the governor let you out?"

"Yeah.  That's him."  He drank more.

"Why?"

"My sentence was eight years, and . . ."

"Eight years?  Isn't that, like, a weird coincidence or something?"

Todd looked at his son, never having really thought of it that way before.  "Yeah, it's a weird coincidence.  My sentence was eight years, and I got out because I saved Marty, and your cousins, Jessica and CJ."

"I heard something about that.  Not all that much.  What did you save them from?"

"Dying in a car wreck.  The car was on the cliff ready to go over.  I pulled them out and carried them on my back to safety.  The car tumbled down the mountain, and Marty was trapped.  I got her free, carried her on foot to the top of the mountain.  It was a choice between running and being free, or saving them and going back to jail.  I chose to save them, even though it led to my capture again."

"The cops caught you?"

"I actually was surrendering.  Some highway patrolman thought I was trying to shoot and shot me.  Right here," he said, pointing to his shoulder.  "Your Uncle Bo was there, he helped me stay with the living until medics got there.  Anyway, I went back to jail.  CJ thought he saw good in me, he and your cousin Sarah started a campaign to get me out, yada yada yada.  They were just kids at the time.  Like Sam's age and younger."

Jack didn't speak.  Then, "Badass."

Todd smirked and then continued, "I couldn't go back to college, after what I had done.  I was a loser.  Basically, I was broke, and being a hospital janitor.  I met your mother at Rodi's."

"She did tell me that.  A lot of times.  Something about her singing later on, because you bet her."

"Yeah.  I bet her.  I already loved her then.  I didn't tell her, or myself really.  She treated me like a person, like a man.  No one else did that after the Marty thing."

"I get it.  You lost college, something you really wanted." He thought for a minute.  "I'm sorry, Dad."

"Hey, don't be.  I totally deserved it.  My actions led me down that path."

Jack didn't answer.  He just stared at his shoes for a moment.

Todd continued, "They did.  I was wrong.  Just full of hate and . . . so screwed up," he took another hit from his beer.

"You wanted this college thing, right?"

"Yeah.  I was the star football player.  I was flying high.  Thought I was untouchable.  I was just so messed up in the head . . . angry.  But I didn't know even half of what happened to me.  It's hard to explain," he said, his throat catching.

Jack said, "Sorry you lost that chance, then."  

Todd didn't answer, he just looked away a moment.  Then he said, "You can't be sorry because I lost it at my own doing."

Jack continued, "But Dad, I don't want it.  I don't want college.  It's not what I want, not in here," he said, pointing to his chest.

Todd swallowed.  "It's not your dream, huh?"

"No."

"Well, what is?"

"To be like you.  That's basically what it is.  I want to do what you do, I want to own The Sun someday, I want to be self-employed, I want to do the things you do, and be good at it.  And I want a wife like mom.  Someone I really know, like deep down.  Someone who's my friend.  I just think . . . it's who I am, being a Manning, and all."

Todd finished the beer and Blair came out of the bathroom in a robe, her hair in a towel. Todd said, "Blair?"

"Yep?"

"Jack's not going to college.  He . . . wants to be a newspaper editor in chief when he grows up, and have one true babe of his own."

"Does he now?" she folded her arms.

"He does.  But Jack, you're going to work your way up, the hard way.  I wouldn't feel right handing things to you."

Jack's face was relieved.  "All right, that's fine."

"And, uh, you might want to consider journalism school someday.  Maybe not now, but later."

"Maybe.  I guess it's always a possibility."

"Okay."  Todd said, standing up.  Jack also stood up and went to his father's embrace.

Blair puttered around in the background, but couldn't really take her eyes off the two of them.  

Todd and Jack let go of each other, and then Jack took off out of the master bedroom suite, and Blair went to Todd's side, and rubbed his shoulders.  She said, "How did that go?"

"Can't you tell?"

"Maybe," she said, slipping her arms around him.  "He's your boy."

"Yeah, I guess he is, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is."  She smiled. "Sometimes, I just can't believe how much like you he looks."

"He looks like you, to me.  He's just beautiful, Blair."

"He is.  He's stunning, and he's smart.  Just like you were."

"I wasn't stunning."

"Oh yes you were.  I was there.  That long, beautiful hair.  You were so sexy, from the first minute I met you."

"I think you were drunk."

"I was, but you still were handsome."

"I scared you," he said, slipping his hand around her back. 

She smiled.  "Eh, I wasn't scared."

"Okay," he said, and he went close enough to her to lightly lick along her mouth, and then turned his head, kissing her deeply, as she opened her mouth to touch his tongue with hers.  

She pulled back a bit from him, and sighed, "My God, you just make me . . . it feels like it did all that time ago."

"Good," he said, kissing her again, and closing his eyes, he remembered her first touch, her Christmas gift, and could have sworn he felt fur cuffs at the ends of her sleeves.

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