The MST, Ch. 27

Samuel sighed and turned into Blair's embrace. He looked into her eyes smiled and said, "Just you and me against the world. Right, Blair?"

There he was. Todd smiling the way he always did when they would start one of their schemes. Blair reached up and moved his hair out of his face. "Yes, you and me, and don't you worry, we'll make them pay, the ones who did this. You'll see." She let him go and moved back to her wine. She turned back to him and said," Remember this one. House Rules. Well, these are the new House Rules. No more recriminations. What's past is past. You got that buster. You're back and you're going to get back everything taken from you or my name isn't Blair Cramer." She smiled, raised her glass in a toast to him, and drank what was left in the glass and threw it at the fireplace, laughing.

Samuel chuckled, "Looks like I'm going to have to get new glassware." He moved back to the couch perching on the end the way Todd used to do. "You know, thank you for giving me back my son. Can you tell me about him?"

Blair replied " I can do that and more," she grabbed her purse and opened the wallet then she removed two pictures from inside and handed them to Samuel. "Jack just started High School, he’s just like you. Impulsive, very direct, he tells it the way he sees it."

Samuel looked at the picture of a young man in his teens. He had been much younger when Todd had seen him last. He saw himself in Jack's young face. This was a confident young man who wasn't hampered by all the baggage his father Todd carried. Jack appeared happy. Samuel then looked at the second picture that Blair had handed him. A beautiful young woman holding a lovely child smiled up from the picture. He recognized his Starr. She was all grown up. His little girl wasn't little any longer. He closed his eyes remembering all the adventures and secrets they had shared when she was younger. Well, he couldn't roll back time. He started to hand the pictures back to Blair but she stopped him. "You hang on to those Samuel, I have others." He looked at Blair and carefully stowed the pictures in his wallet, then he said. "Blair, I need to see Starr.  Can you get her here?  I know it will be a shock. but it's important to me. It's important to Todd. I won't ask to see Jack yet, but Starr is older she deserves to know the truth."

"You're right Samuel, she of all people deserves to know you're alive. I'll try and bring her by tomorrow afternoon. Will that work for you?" Blair answered.

"That will be fine, Blair. I sense that I don't have much more time. Ever since arriving here in Llanview, I've felt this pull. I almost followed that pull this morning. I would like to see Starr, she's always given me the will to survive and I think I need that boost right now. Todd especially needs to know that you and Starr will be waiting for us. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I just recalled something you said in passing on the telephone earlier. You mentioned meeting someone on the plane from Paris. Someone you said had a connection to Carlo Hesser. Who was it again?" he asked.

Blair looked at Samuel. She was worried about him. What was this talk about not much more time?  God, she thought  I just got him back. Am I going to lose him to that memory already? One way or the other I've got to make sure he knows both Starr and I are going to be here this time and we're not leaving. She heard him change the subject. Blair knew he was trying to take his mind off that fateful moment. "Oh, yes I remember. That's right. The person in question is named Alex Olanov she used to be married to Carlo Hesser. Why the interest?"

"Because, Blair, I encountered a charming woman in Paris named Alex. We started off just having a drink together, but I sensed something was off and wasn't going to see her anymore. That same night I got it into my head that she might have been sent by the people who've watched me these last eight years. In fact, I spent an entire afternoon with her the same day you showed up at my door. She had been trying to get information and I believe she had been sent to wrap me around her little finger. I'd thought I might be able to glean my own information from her but she got skittish and then she suddenly had to leave town. It's my belief that whoever is behind her is behind all of this. Now you tell me that she is connected to Hesser. The same man who's been buying my paintings for a number of years. Blair, I think Carlo Hesser is the person who did this to me. Now I have to find proof. I'm hoping my contacts will find a link between the research facility and Hesser. If there is one, then I'll be able to concentrate on just what the facility is researching."

Samuel got up and moved to the window staring down at Llanview. "You know, Todd hates this town. I feel it in my bones. Don't get me wrong, He loves you and the Kids, Tea, and Vicki but he can't stand the town. There is a blackness in this town that eats at him. I don't know if I can help him purge that hatred or not. If he survives to return, he'll need all our help to remain."

Samuel had spent the morning painting a portrait of Starr. He pictured her sitting in the middle of a bed. In front of her on the bed was a tea set. She was laughing at something Todd had done. He remembered her saying. "You can't fool me. You're My Daddy." Samuel was worried Blair wouldn't be able to get Starr to the penthouse. He's suggested that maybe Blair could try and talk Starr into setting up a home for Hope in the Penthouse. He had been surprised when Blair had thought that was an excellent idea. She had taken his suggestion one step further and told Samuel that he should have Starr and Hope come live with him. He had never even thought of that possibility but the longer he thought about it, the more he was taken with the idea. He had given Blair a key so that it would look like the realtor was letting them look at the place. They had made plans for Blair to have a little trouble with the key so he would have time to retreat upstairs. God, he was so nervous.

Blair had also been busy, finding ways to get Starr in the mood to move. She had had Jack bust in on his sister bright and early yelling something about Sam letting his pet mouse loose upstairs and he had just seen it run into Starr's room. Then she and Langston had monopolized the bathrooms for ages so Starr almost missed her morning class at LU. When Starr arrived home, Blair then suggested she might want a place of her own. "You know Starr, your father's old Penthouse is available. Maybe we could go take a look at it this afternoon. You're already familiar with the layout and they have that great Daycare on the ground floor for working residents. Hope would have excellent care and you would be able to concentrate on your studies better during the day. What do you say? Let's take Hope and go have a look." Starr had actually perked up at the thought. They had bundled up Hope and headed out.

All the way there Blair was thinking about the reaction Starr was going to have. She decided that the best way to reveal Samuel was simply to let Samuel and Starr come face to face and work it out from there."Ok, we're here." I hope Starr can take this, I know what I experienced the first time I saw him. They parked in the garage and took the elevator up.

“Gosh Mom, it seems like forever since we've been in the penthouse. Dad sold it right before we were to move to Hawaii. Then everything happened with Cole. We were so happy right before all of that. I'm a little scared. I wonder what it looks like now?" Starr said and then hugged Hope and said, " This is where Mommy grew up. Wait till you see Hope." The elevator stopped and they walked to the front door. Blair got out the key and made a big show of having trouble with the lock. "Here Mom, you take Hope. I can get the door." Starr got the door unlocked and opened it. Blair let her enter first and followed with Hope.

Starr walked in.   In some ways, it looked exactly like it had when they had left but the furniture was set up totally different. "Mom, are you sure this penthouse is still available. It looks like there might be someone already living here." Then she saw the portraits on the wall. She had never seen them before. There was her Aunt Vicki and Tea and My God was that her Mother! She looked at her mother "Mom! when did you pose for that!"

Blair had the grace to blush, but spoke up quickly, "Starr Manning, I never posed like that with anybody."

"But Mom where did they come from. I've never seen them before, I would have remembered." She went up to the portraits but saw no signature. She was able to make out three dates. The ones of Aunt Vicki and Tea had been painted in 2004 but then she saw the date 2011 on the one of her Mother. She turned around smiling. "Now I know you're not telling me everything. These paintings all just have dates and no signatures just like the one you took to Paris. Are you going to stand there and tell me you didn't meet the artist? Mom, how could you allow a perfect stranger to paint you like that?"

"Starr, I did not go over to Paris and have a fling with an artist and these are not my paintings.  I brought you here to look at the Penthouse I wasn't aware it was occupied. Why don't you look around a little more I'm going to get some water for Hope. " Blair said and headed for the kitchen.

Starr noticed the Easel sitting over by the window and the paint supplies sitting around it. Her curiosity got the better of her and she went to see the canvas on the easel. Starr could only stare. It was of her as a child.  Who was the artist who had painted all of these? How did he know her? She had only been four when her father had gone through a weird time in his life. But she remembered the tea party she and her daddy had that day. Aunt Vicki had called her dad Tom that day. She didn't understand till later about DID, but she had been told her dad had pretended to have it. She loved her dad, so she had never judged him. How had this artist known about that moment? Aunt Vicki and Dad had been the only other ones in the room with her. Suddenly Starr heard a noise on the stairs behind her, She turned and looked up.

He stood there looking at his beautiful daughter. She was so grown up. Samuel felt such love for her. She had seen him. He wondered just what kind of reaction he was going to get from her. "Hello, Starr. I didn't mean to startle you."

"Who the hell are you!? What are you doing in my Dad's penthouse? And who do you think you're going to fool with that makeup job? I don't know what game you're playing, but someone should have told you about my dad's new face. You don't look anything like Todd Manning now. Wait till my dad finds out about you. Man, you're in trouble." Starr spoke angrily.

"Now just hold on Shorty, I'm not trying to fool anyone. This is my penthouse, it was before you were born and after. This makeup job isn't makeup, it's my face. And although you don't believe it at this moment. I'm your dad." Samuel couldn't believe how frustrated he felt. What was he going to do now? How could he prove to her he was her father?

"Whoa," Starr had never seen him angry before. Wait a minute, had she just thought that? For one brief moment, she had felt like she was hearing her dad. Just who was this man. He had rattled off his comments the same way her dad used to. Why had he said he was her father? He called her Shorty. What was going on? He had made it to the bottom of the stairs. He looked at her, then walked over to the painting of her by the window.

"This is a memory I loved, it kept me going back then. You were so little but you had such a big heart. You had apologized to me because you didn't have real cookies so I grabbed some from my stash under the bed and was eating them and talking to you at the same time. You told me to stop eating with my mouth full. Then your Aunt Vicki came into the room, she had brought me some clothes. She called me Tom and you wanted to know who Tom was. So I explained that my whole name was Thomas Todd Manning and some people called me Todd and some called me Tom. But what you said was the best thing of all,"  he turned and looked right at her. "“You said, you can't fool me, you're my daddy. That meant the world to me. You mean the world to me. If you don't believe in me then I might as well be dead." Samuel waited watched her. He had nothing else to offer but his love.

Blair had returned from the kitchen, she'd had never heard what happened the day when they had met Tom. She remembered how she, Max, Kevin, and Tea were all skeptical of the DID. She also remembered the day after when she had insisted Todd stop what he was doing or she would take Starr and leave. Now she understood why Pete had come out. He was protecting Todd and his relationship with his daughter. One of Starr's tape players was running that day and the tape ended up being played at the worse possible time. Todd had stoically accepted the censure of his loved ones and let them think that he had been faking. Now she understood what he had meant the last time they had wed. He had tried to tell her how his head was full of voices and how she kept them at bay. In his own way, he was telling her his secret, it just hadn't registered.

Starr didn't know what to do. She looked at his face. He was the older version of a dad she hadn't seen since 2003. Where had he gotten the second scar? She didn't understand what to believe. If this was her dad standing here, where had he been for so long? If he loved her as he said why had he left? She was so bewildered.

Samuel could see the thoughts run through her mind. She didn't know whether to believe him or to continue to chastise him for being a fraud. He had hoped that just seeing him would be enough but now he knew different. "I am not an impostor Starr. I've been gone all this time because I had no memory of who I was until recently. To make matters worse, I have one more confession. This body standing in front of you is your father's body but I am in charge of it right now. My name is Samuel and I am one of your father's alters."

"Now I know you’re lying. My dad doesn't have alters. He just pretended to be like his sister to get out of prison. Mom, you tell him. He's lying right?" Starr looked over at her mom. "What kind of lies did he tell you in Paris. This is the artist of your painting right? I don't know what you told my mom but I'm telling you, whatever your planning, it isn't going to work. My dad knows all sorts of people. They'll figure out your scam."

It was time she spoke up. Blair walked across the room and joined the two of them. There was only one thing she could think of at the moment that might work. She walked up to Samuel and said, "Samuel, I'd like you to meet your Granddaughter Hope." then she handed him, Hope.

Samuel looked at his granddaughter. She was adorable and so much like his Starr when she had been little. " Hello Princess Shorty, are you a good girl for your mother, the queen of this domain. Well, let me introduce myself.  I'm Sir Dragon and I've known your mother for most of her life. I even came to the rescue of your grandmother once when an ugly King was threatening her. Now I'm here to protect you. Would you allow this Dragon to serve you?" Hope giggled and hugged her newfound friend. Samuel hugged her back as tears formed "Thank you, Princess Shorty, I'll take that as a yes." He looked at Starr and said. "She's beautiful, Starr."

Starr gazed at Hope and her dad. In one moment she saw the truth. There, standing holding her daughter, was the man who had filled her life with wonder. Here was the dad who, long ago, had named her Princess Shorty and had stood between her and anyone who would hurt her. She remembered all the stories he used to tell and act out for her. He was here again, looking at her with tears in his eyes begging her to believe in him one more time. Not understanding any of it, she threw logic out the window and did what her heart told her to do. Starr flung her arms around both her dad and Hope and held onto both of them for dear life. With tear-filled eyes, she looked at her dad and said, "I've missed you, Dad."

Samuel couldn't catch his breath, as he held still and just enjoyed the feeling of his daughter's arms around him again. His heart felt ready to burst, suddenly Samuel felt a sharp pain rip through his chest. He gasped for breath. "No! Not now!"

Starr saw the look on Samuel face change from joy to pain. He suddenly turned so white, "Dad! What is it? What's the matter? Mom, take Hope." Blair had rushed over at Samuel's gasp and quickly took Hope from his arms. Starr helped Samuel to the bottom stair and sat him down. He was clutching his chest and looked about ready to pass out "Mom I think it's his heart. Call 911. Dad, you're going to be alright we'll get help."

Samuel reach out and grabbed Starr's arm. "Aspirin .. in . kitchen.. get .." he was starting to lose consciousness. He felt for the rail but couldn't move his arm any longer than there was nothing.

Starr had rushed to the kitchen to find the aspirin when she heard her Mom cry out. She grabbed the bottle and ran back out to the living room. "Oh no, Dad!"

Blair had just finished the 911 call when she saw Samuel collapse on the stair. She ran over and laid him flat on the floor.  God, his heart had stopped. She began CPR and felt for a pulse.  He had one. She knelt there looking down at Todd barely breathing. "Don't you die on me! We just got you back. You can't come back and then leave again. It's not right. Thomas Todd Rodd Pete Samuel Ms. Perkins Manning don't you leave!" His breathing became easier and then he slowly opened his eyes. "Todd, we're getting help, stay with me."

He smiled weakly and said, “I'm not going anywhere."

Starr joined her mother at her dad's side. " Mom, is he going to be alright?" She looked down into his eyes and smiled at him. "You've got to stick around, I don't have Freddie the frog any longer. So you can't leave. Besides, Hope needs the best storyteller around to tell her the 'real' fairy tales. Come here Hope, keep your grandpa awake. Sing a little song for him." The doorbell rang, Starr handed the aspirin to her mother and went to let in the EMTs.

A short while later...."I'm not going and that's final! Look I'm much better now, I'll take full responsibility but I'm not going to the hospital," said Samuel.  He looked over to Blair for some assistance. "Please, I promise to see a doctor for a full workup, but I can't go to that hospital. I hate hospitals."

Blair looked into Samuel's eyes. She knew why he was avoiding the hospital but she was worried he was putting his life on the line. "You heard him, gentlemen. I promise to take him to my doctor first thing tomorrow." She led the EMTs to the door and saw them out. Then she returned to have it out with Samuel. "Are you crazy! You just had a heart attack. You should have let them take you."

“Blair, Starr, I can't go to the hospital. Not here anyway. Besides, I know what they're going to tell me. I've known it for eight years. The injuries I sustained eight years ago did some damage to my heart. It's weaker than it used to be. But all my doctors assured me that I could still live a long life, I just have to watch my stress." Samuel looked at both of them, silently begging them to help. "Before you blow a gasket Blair, I'm aware that I'm preparing to try and take my life back and that is going to be very stressful, that's why I need your help. Starr, I have a request, would you consider moving in with your old man. You could keep an eye on me and make sure I'm not getting too carried away. I think having you and Hope around could be the best medicine for me." He grinned and picked up his granddaughter setting her on his lap. "What do you say, Hope, do you want to live with Sir Dragon?"

Starr glanced over at her Mom, she shook her head, and looked back at her Dad, and said, "Well someone needs to keep an eye on you, that's for sure. Yes, Dad, we'll move in with you."

"You hear that Hope. Welcome to Sir Dragon's Cave." Samuel said happily.