The MST, Firestorm, Ch. 34

Bo walked to his front door and stooped to pick up the papers. He was exhausted. He had just spent the last two days recovering from the revelations that occurred at Jessica's and Natalie's weddings. Nora and he had poured over hospital records and questioned Clint's employee ad nauseam trying to get something concrete on Clint. Every time they thought they had the case sewed up, Clint kept finding loopholes. Vicki had called and now they had to add looking for Jessica in the mix. It appeared her alter Tess was once again in charge and had run off leaving her newborn and fiance in the lurch. Clint's shenanigans were wreaking havoc. Bo was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Trouble had a tendency to come in threes.

He poured himself a drink and sat down and began going through his mail. He expected Nora shortly after she went to talk to Vicki. It was awfully quiet," Matthew." No, answer. Bo hadn't really expected one. Matthew had been giving them the cold shoulder since they had stopped him from working for Clint. The door opened and Red came in. She put her stuff down and came and curled up beside him. "Hi Honey, How was Vicki?" he asked.

Nora snuggled next to her husband and said. "About like you would expect after what Clint has done.  Bo, I just don't understand how he could do this to his family.  I know he felt hurt by what you and I did, but it doesn't excuse what he did to Rex and the girls. Now Tess is back in charge and Vicki is frantic. She seemed doubly distracted this evening. We need to give ourselves a break.  I'll order some juicy hamburgers and cheese fries from Carlotta's and we can find an old movie to get lost in for a couple of hours. What do you say, Handsome?"

"I say let's do it. Pull out 'Dark Passage', I feel like Bogie and Bacall tonight." Bo pulled Nora in his arms and gave her a big kiss, then she got up and headed to the phone to order. Bo finished looking at the mail then Nora came back to join him on the couch. Nora said, "I put the DVD in and we're all set when the meal gets here. Hand me the Banner, will you?"

Bo handed the Banner to Nora and opened the Sun up. "What the Hell!" Bo said as he looked at the headline. Next to him, he heard Nora Gasp" My God" "Honey what is it?"

Nora turned the front page of the Banner toward him. Staring at him on the front page was a picture of 'Todd Manning’.' He looked dead. But what was so unnerving was the fact that he looked the way he had sixteen years earlier right before he found out he was a Lord.

Bo suddenly remembered something that had happened the day before outside his office. Manning had left about an hour earlier and taken his wife Tea with him. Bo and Nora had been totally frustrated. Tea left before they had gotten a signed statement from Clint's assistant. He and Nora had been discussing the case when he had looked out the window into the squad room and had seen a man waving at him. It had taken a moment for it to register that it looked like the old Todd Manning. Because he had stopped talking, Nora had looked to see what had distracted him. The Man winked at Nora and was gone. By the time Bo got out into the main room, the man had disappeared. Was this the man who had been in the station yesterday?

"What's going on Bo, has the world turned upside down?  First Clint, and now this!  Who is he? My God, he could be Manning's twin. Is this for real or is someone playing a sick joke?" Nora asked.

"I don't know, Honey.  According to the articles, someone needing medical help was taken from Victor Lord's tomb last night. Maybe someone at the Banner thought they'd rile up Manning by making it look like he had a double carried from the tomb. There's no Picture of who was carried out in the Sun." says Bo.

Nora looks at Bo. "That might explain the Papers but what about what we both saw yesterday. I know you saw him too. Were we imagining him and if we were, then why does he look so real in the picture? This man looks like Todd looked years ago but Bo, this man is definitely older.  This isn't a picture that someone pulled out of the files to get a rise out of Manning. I think this picture is real."

" Honey, if this picture is for real, then all hell is going to break loose around here. I hear the sound of the other shoe dropping." Bo grimly replied.

Tea watched her husband storm from the house. Why had she ever agreed to keep Dani's secret. She was watching her husband come apart at the seams over his suspicions that Nate just wanted Dani for sex. Now he felt like she was once again leaving him out of the loop where his daughter was concerned. Tea was worried about him, he had been acting awfully distracted lately. His mood swings had been getting more erratic. He had started fixating about Dani and how she had kept Dani out of his life for so long. She wasn't sure what was going on but for now she prayed he didn't find Dani in the state he was in. There was no telling what he would do.

She started to close the front door when she noticed the papers were still there from this morning. With everything going on with Dani, neither one of them had even brought the papers in. Tea grabbed the papers and carried them into the living room. Needing something to take her mind off Todd, she opened up the Sun to read it first. "What on earth, " she thought, "who would go to a cemetery at night." Tea was a little creeped out that someone had been taken out of Victor's Tomb on a stretcher and she realized that Todd had no idea about this article. He wouldn't be too happy to find out someone had even been in there. The article had gone on to speculate if the late Victor Lord had returned from the dead. Obviously, someone at the Sun had forgotten that their publisher was Victor Lord's son. With the mood, her husband was in whoever authorized this story just might lose his head. She would keep the article out of Todd's way and call the paper and suggest they might want to watch what they speculate about.

Well, she knew the Banner was usually above the tabloid level maybe they stayed away from the story. She opened the Banner, " No, it couldn't be." She had just looked at that face the other day in an old wedding album and now he was staring at her from the front page. Why was Todd's old picture on the front page? The headline called him a doppelganger for the Sun's Publisher. The article told of this man being helped by EMTs and taken to the hospital. Who was this man?

Tea remembered something strange happening the previous afternoon. She and Todd had just gotten back from the police station when a car had driven up at the end of their drive. They both thought it unusual that the driver stopped right behind their cars so they headed down to talk to the driver. The window on the passenger side opened up and she remembered looking in to see the driver. Tea had only been able to see his face in the shadows but she recalled his voice saying what a nice couple they made. She sat there for a minute and replayed what he said. She felt a chill run down her spine. There was something about his voice that seemed so familiar. he had sounded so much like Todd. She looked at the picture again, this was a current photo according to the photographer's by-line. Who was he and why was he in Victor's tomb?

Tea knew it wouldn't do her any good to call the hospital. She grabbed her purse and headed out the door. She was just ready to leave when it occurred to her she might not want to leave the papers where Todd could find them. Turning back she went and picked up both papers, turned off the living room light and left. She thought to herself, "There's no way I can let him see those papers. if he's acting erratic now, what will he do if he thinks someone might be posing as him. I need to find out all I can first. Then I'll be able to get control of the situation before he finds out."

Tea got to the hospital in record time and went into information.   She explained to the receptionist that she feared her brother might have been brought in during the night. She asked if they had any new patients with long hair and goatee. The receptionist wasn't aware of any, then someone else in the area remarked about a gentleman who had come in suffering from a heart attack, from Tea's description it could have been that gentleman.

Tea used all her wiles to get the information. "Please tell me where he might be. I have to see if it's my brother." The receptionist looked at her kindly and said. " Here he is, he's up in CCU. If he isn't your brother you probably won't be able to see him. There is a request that only family is allowed in." Tea hurried up to CCU, trying to figure out how she was going to get into seeing the man. When she got to CCU she went to the nurses' desk and again told them she was looking for her brother. She gave his description and they replied they only had one person by that description on the ward. He was a distant cousin of Victoria Banks and his name was Samuel Toddman. Todd had never mentioned any distant cousins but he wasn't really into the Lord family tree. Obviously, Vicki knew him, but why had Vicki insisted on only family members being allowed in. Just who the hell was the mysterious Samuel Toddman?

Blair carefully moved his hair off his face. Todd had fallen asleep shortly after his declaration of love. He was still so weak from the heart attacks, his body's need won out over his determination to stay awake. Blair looked at the papers one more time and made a mental note to give Vicki a call. They were going to have to get their stories straight concerning finding Samuel in the tomb. Todd had never intended to come out this soon, so it was necessary to deflect any questions that were going to start coming because of the articles.

Making Samuel a distant cousin gave them a chance to explain why he was in the tomb. Todd and she had discussed it earlier and they were going to go with the story that Samuel had discovered the connection after Blair's visit in Paris and had come to the States to find out more about the Lord side of the Family. He had heard stories about Victor and had wandered down to the cemetery on a whim. If anyone asked, Samuel would say he found it somewhat romantic to walk through the cemetery and see all the couples resting in peace together. While he had perused the tombstones, he had suddenly found himself at the Lord tomb. For their part, Blair and Starr happened to be at the cemetery to visit a couple of graves. Blair had wanted to stop and see Sam's grave, and Starr wanted to see Chloe's. They had come upon Vicki visiting Ben's grave and the three had started to leave when they chanced upon the open door to Victor's tomb and Vicki heard a groan come from inside. That was when they discovered Samuel. For Vicki's part, earlier that afternoon, Samuel had introduced himself to Vicki. They had chatted briefly with the promise of more time together when everything settled concerning Vicki's daughters. Before he had left her, Samuel had informed her he had just settled in town from Paris. Blair sat down and pulled out her cell phone, she might as well try and reach Vicki while Todd slept.

Half an hour later, Blair finished her call with Vicki, now everything was in place, If Bo should happen to call, they had a story for him. The same was true if Todd or Tea should question the article in the Paper. She made another call to Starr and let her in on the story also. Since Todd was sleeping peacefully, Blair decided to go get something to eat and check on his status at the nurses' station. She knew Todd wanted to get out of the hospital but she felt it was necessary for him to be truly stable before he went back to the penthouse. Once he got home they wouldn't be able to contain him long.

As Blair left Todd's room she realized how lucky they were that all of his ID named him Samuel Toddman. The penthouse had been purchased by Samuel, so chances were slim that the paper trail would reveal anything other than the story they were telling. Just as she neared the Nurses station, Blair recognized Tea. She debated turning around before Tea saw her, but knew that would just delay the inevitable. Obviously, Tea was here because of the article in the Banner. Blair continued to walk toward the desk messing with her top so her eyes didn't meet Tea's. Suddenly she heard. "Blair is that you. What are you doing in CCU?  It isn't your mother is it?" Tea asked as she came forward.

Blair feigned surprise at running into Tea. "What, oh no Tea, Momma's fine. I'm here visiting a new acquaintance. He suffered a heart attack recently and I happened to be with him at the time. I was able to keep him alive until the EMTs arrived. He only has a few people he knows so far in Llanview so I thought he could use the company. What brought you to the hospital?"

Tea pulled the Banner out from under her arm and opened it and said. "This, Blair I almost fainted when I saw it. Have you seen this? " She gave the paper to Blair.

Blair expressed amazement. "Tea, I'm so sorry, who would write such an article, where did they get that picture? Oh Dear, has Todd seen this?"

"No, of course not. Todd's head in a really bad place right now. Dani and her boyfriend almost made out in our living room the other night and Todd's on the warpath. Dani's equally furious with Todd and I'm stuck in the middle. I wasn't sure if he could handle the fact that there might be someone in town who looks like he used to. I came to see if there was any truth to the story. The story said the patient was brought here. I just found out his name is Samuel Toddman. I was hoping to see him but they informed me that only family could visit right now." Tea answered.

Blair decided to tell Tea about Samuel, she would have to know some time and it was better to tell her now than when Walker was around. "Tea, I'm surprised someone got a picture of him. I wasn't aware there were any reporters around last night. But I will tell you who the man in the picture is. Tea, this is my acquaintance Samuel. Let's sit down and I'll tell you how we met." Tea and Blair moved to some chairs and Blair started telling Tea about her trip to Paris. She told of finding out he was the painter of her portrait. How they had talked for the whole night about his paintings and his resemblance to Todd. Blair told Tea that Samuel had no idea who Todd Manning was and had apologized if his looks had startled her. She explained to Tea about her skepticism that he had painted the portraits and how she had thought he was trying to pull some scam on her, that is until he produced a portrait that very night. She had been mortified to have doubted him, but they had parted as new friends.

Blair then went on to tell Tea that Samuel had contacted her a couple of days before and had told her he had discovered a distant connection to the Lord family.  He had recently moved into the area and had wanted to know if she knew any of the Lord's. " I gave him Vicki's name and thought that was the end of it until last night. Starr and I and Vicki were all at the cemetery last night when we found Samuel having a heart attack. I wasn't even aware that Vicki knew him until she informed the doctors that he was a distant cousin. I believe Vicki decided the best way to keep people from bothering him was to insist that only family be allowed in to see him. His condition is serious right now so the restriction is valid. Vicki let me stay because I helped keep him alive and Starr is distantly related. Since you're married to Todd and he's also distantly related, I'm sure I could get you in to see him. If you want to."

Tea had listened to Blair's amazing story. She couldn't imagine what she would have done if it had been her meeting Samuel first. His resemblance to Todd's old face was uncanny. Blair was offering to get her in to see him, but now she wasn't too sure she wanted to. "Blair, that's amazing. I don't know what I would have done. But I don't think I'm ready to meet him just yet especially if he's so ill. If Todd's reporters get too curious I'll have Todd pull them off the story. There's no reason to sensationalize this any more than the papers already have. You go see to your new friend and I'll try and keep my husband from freaking out. OK"

"OK, Tea. When you're ready to meet him just let me know. Thanks for keeping the story from getting worse than it is. I'm going to go back to check on him now. I hope you can get through Todd's thick skull about Dani. Good luck" Blair gave Tea a quick hug goodbye and walked back down the hallway to Todd's room.

Once inside the room. Blair breathed a big sigh of relief. She walked over and looked at Todd still sleeping. "Todd, we just escaped a bullet. Tea was just here but isn't ready to meet Samuel yet. I hope you know what you're doing?  When she finally realizes the truth we're both going to have to face her wrath. Boy, even now the trouble begins. I'm just going out for a minute to get some food, I'll be right back. I love you." Blair leaned over and gave him a kiss then left to find some dinner.