Written in 65 minutes.

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Thursday, October 3, 2024

Webber House: Danny’s Room

Danny sat the end of the bed, hunched over with his arms clasped around his torso, staring hard at the ground. “Did she feel any pain?” he asked finally.

Dante, standing at the window, turned back to the sullen teenager. “Know?” he echoed.

“M-Mom. Did she—I mean—” Danny’s voice wobbled. “Does it hurt to down? It has to, right. You’re trying to breathe, and you c-can’t because there’s water—”

“Hey.” Dante sat next to him, put an arm around his shoulder. “Your mom wouldn’t  want you thinking about any of this right now, okay? Don’t do this. We don’t—we don’t know what she was thinking or feeling.”

“She was scared. She was so scared, and I couldn’t stop it. If I didn’t make all this trouble—”

“Danny. I need you to look at me. Can you do that?”

Dante waited until Danny looked at him, tears glimmering in his eyes, the corners of his mouth pulled down at the corners. “I need you to separate those things in your head because they are not related. You were going through a hell of a time, and you were doing the best you could. You’re a kid, Danny. Your job is not to be perfect. It’s our job as adults to help you fix them, to get through it, and back on the other side. Your mom just wanted you to be okay—”

“Don’t lie.” Danny lurched off the bed, stalked towards the wall then spun back. “It’s all connected, I know it is. I saw her yesterday, okay? And if I had believed her, if I had told her I knew it wasn’t her, she wouldn’t have gone after Aunt Kristina—”

“You’re not the only one who didn’t believe her, Danny. And it’s a weight I’ll carry the rest of my life,” Dante told him. He slowly rose to his feet. “Your mom made choices that made it hard to trust her, and Kristina took advantage of that. No one else is to blame except Kristina for lying and making all of this so much worse.”

Danny exhaled slowly, his breath shaky. “I wish I’d been nicer. When we had our visit last week. I picked a fight because I wanted her to be honest, but I wish I didn’t. I just—” He faltered, swallowed hard. “I thought I had more time.” He met Dante’s gaze. “We were supposed to have more time.”

Quartermaine Estate: Kitchen

Sasha set down another pan of lasagna on a warming plate, then removed her oven mitts. “I think I went overboard,” she said to Rocco. “Three is probably too many.”

“Grandma says you can never have too much lasagna,” Rocco said absently pulling his phone from his pocket again, running his finger over the messages app. “Any cookies left?”

“They’re in the second oven now. Oatmeal raisin.” She watched him stare at his phone for another moment. “Expecting a call or something?”

“What?” He blinked at her. “No. I just—” He sighed, then crossed the kitchen to hand her his phone. A text message had been pulled up.

“From Aiden,” Sasha said. “Hey. I know you weren’t Sam’s biggest fan, but this really sucks dude and I’m sorry. Danny won’t really talk to me. I just want to help.” She looked at him. “This is a nice message.”

“Yeah. Aiden’s the nice one.” Rocco took the phone, slid it back in his pocket. “I’m the trouble maker, Danny’s the asshole.”

“Sounds like everyone’s got their role to play.” An oven dinged, and Sasha went to pull out a tray. “Have you talked to Danny?”

“No. It’s only been a few hours.” Rocco shifted, uncomfortable. “He won’t wanna talk to me.”

“Sounds like he won’t talk to anyone. Doesn’t mean you don’t let him know you’re there when he’s ready. Maybe he thinks you won’t be there.” Sasha gestured at the cookies. “Let them sit for about thirty minutes. I’m going to check on Monica and see what she wants for dinner.”

Rocco sighed, then sat back at the table, staring at his phone. Finally, he brought up Danny’s contact information.

Im sorry this sucks

A few minutes later, there was a bubble, indicating Danny was typing back, and then—

no shit asshole does scout know?

 i think so your gmom went in to do it you should come over to see her you and aiden or something

Rocco typed the invitation out in a rush, and then put the phone upside down so he wouldn’t stare at the text wishing he could drag it back.

Webber House: Living Room

Elizabeth was restless, searching for something—anything—to do and had settled for folding and refolding some of the casual throw blankets strewn over the sofa and the armchair. Dante and Michael had left not long ago, and the boys were upstairs in their room.

“Who was that?” she asked when Jason came in through the front door. “Any news?”

“Not much. Just—” He set the cordless phone back on the base. “They recovered her…” He looked at her. “They’ve taken her to GH.”

“Oh.” Her throat felt strange and she looked down at the blanket in her hands. “It seems so strange,” Elizabeth murmured. “All that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours. The last month.” She met his gaze. “It’s barely been that long since I was arrested, and it feels like the whole world has changed since then. Since that day at the boat house. For so long, I just focused on my freedom. On getting the charges dropped.” She let the blanket fall. “Now? It seems so far away.” She sat on the arm of the sofa, watching him. “I don’t know what to say to you.”

Jason came around her, sat down in the arm chair, bracing his elbows on his thighs, clasping his hands between them. “I don’t know what I’m feeling,” he admitted.  “Worry. Sadness. Regret. Not that—not that Sam and I couldn’t—” He leaned back, letting his hands fall back to the arms of the chair. “Not that we couldn’t make it work because we just were never good for each other again.” He looked at her. “And I like where I am now. But—”

“But she was still someone you loved and made a life with.” Elizabeth touched his hand, and let him pull her down so that she was sitting across his lap, almost curled into his side. “I didn’t like her much in the end,” she said softly. “No. I hated her. Most of the time, I hated her. But she was loved by people that I care about. And she was a mother. I can feel sadness for her kids today. For her mother, for all Alexis’s fault, burying a child is a horror. I know we got a miracle, but I will never forget how it felt to stand over his grave.”

Jason stroked her back, and she pressed her forehead against his, letting the warmth of their embrace comfort them both.  “I wish we could have found our way to the other side of this. I never wanted Danny to lose his mother. I never wanted it this way.”

Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond, but there was a brisk knock at the door that drew her attention. She got to her feet, tugging at the bottom of her t-shirt, then went over to pull open the door. “Diane.”

“Hello. I—” She hesitated, looked at Jason who had also stood. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“No, no, just—” Elizabeth closed the door. “Did something happen?”

“Yes. I—” Diane exhaled in a rush of breath. “I just received word from the court. Noah Reynolds has filed for a dismissal of all charges.”

“Already?” Elizabeth demanded.

“I thought it would be a few more days,” Jason said. “Or that he’d fight it—”

“I don’t know what’s going on or why it’s happening so fast, but I will be watching him like a hawk.” Diane clasped her hands together. “But as far as I can tell, this is over. Pretrial services will be reaching out to you,” she told Elizabeth. “To arrange the end of your supervision and removal of the ankle bracelet.”

“Just like that,” Elizabeth murmured. “It’s over.” She pressed a fist to her chest, tears pressing behind her eyes. “That’s—” She looked at Jason. “It’s over.”

He drew her close to him, wrapping his arms around her, burying his face in her hair, before looking over at Diane. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for trusting me. I’ll keep you all informed as the case continues, I know we won’t want any surprises. But for now your family can focus on Danny and taking care of each other.”

General Hospital: Morgue

The elevators let out a ding as the doors slid open and TJ stepped out, scanning the area for his target. He grimaced when he found Molly sitting outside the entrance to the morgue, her arms wrapped around herself. “I was hoping Ted was wrong when he called me and told me you were here.”

Molly didn’t even bother to look up. “It has to be done.”

“No. It doesn’t. But even if it does, let it be someone else—”

“There’s no one else.” Now, she did lift her eyes to him, bloodshot and swollen. “My mother is with Scout. Kristina’s is in the ICU and even if she weren’t, I wouldn’t want her anywhere near Sam. There’s no one else TJ.”

She rose to her feet when the door opened and an attendant came out. “Ms. Davis? You can come into the viewing room and we’ll…bring her in.”

“Mols—”

Molly ignored him, went inside the room but didn’t protest when he followed her. They stood in the quiet, cold room with the lights dimmed, a large picture window opened to an examining room.

“The youngest daughter is supposed to be the wild and carefree one, did you know that?” she asked TJ. “The middle child gets overlooked, and the oldest gets all the pressure. But it was never like that in our family. I think it’s because Sam came to us last. She came to Mom already broken, living life on the edge. Always looking for a thrill. She tried to be a good older sister, but she didn’t really know how. I don’t know what happened with me. When I decided it would be my job to take care of Kristina.” She looked at TJ. “When did we decide that, do you think? When did it become my responsibility to clean up Kristina’s messes?”

“Mols—”

TJ stopped when the attendant came in the other room, rolling in a stretcher, a body with a sheet drawn over it. Molly’s body began to tremble — just slightly. Her fingers, clutching at her shoulders shaking.

They drew back the sheet, and there she was — her skin pale, slightly bloated, with a cut above her eyebrows, and bruising at her jaw. Molly met the eyes of the attendant, jerked her head down in a nod, and Sam’s face was quickly covered.

Molly turned to look at TJ, opened her mouth, then shook her head and hurried over to a nearby trash can, leaving over to vomit.

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