Written in 72 minutes.

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Saturday, September 21, 2024

Penthouse: Living Room

Dante forced his expression to relax before pulling the door open to reveal a pair of familiar uniformed cops, Dex Heller and his partner—damn it what was her name?—  “Hey, Dex. Uh, come in—” He stepped to the side, shot Sam a warning glance, hoping she’d remember to let him handle everything.

“Hey, Dante. Sam. You remember my partner, Erica Williams,” he said, and the other cop just made a face. Not a great start, Dante thought. “Uh, we just took statements from the security in the lobby.” Dex stopped by the desk. “So we’re gonna talk to you, and then head over to Elizabeth Webber.”

“That’s not—” Dante looked to Sam again before turning his attention to the cops. “That’s not necessary. It’s just a custody thing that got out of hand, you know? I don’t think anyone’s pressing charges—”

“With all due respect, Detective Falconieri,” Erica Williams said, “that’s not up to you.”

“I’m not pressing charges either,” Sam said, her voice a bit rusty. She approached hesitantly. “Like Dante said, tempers are high right now. I’m sure you’ve seen your fair share of domestic situations—”

“Ma’am, I understand, but from what we saw on the security footage, it’s not something we can just walk away from.”

And considering Dante had already pulled enough strings to get the weed mentions deleted from their report barely a week ago, he wasn’t going to be able to do it twice. So he was going to have to go on the defense. “Sam, you want to call your mom?”

Sam pressed her lips together. “You saw the footage. You know it was mutual. I don’t need lawyer. I’m not pressing charges. If she wants to, whatever. That’s her problem. I don’t have anything to say.”

Dex cleared his throat. “You, uh, don’t want to tell us how it started?”

“We already told you. A custody dispute. If you need more than that — if charges are going to be filed, then, yeah, I think I’m gonna need my lawyer.”

“Fair enough. We’ll, uh, head over to the Webbers. See what the situation is. We’ll be in touch if we need to.”

“All right. Thanks.”

After Dante had closed the door, he exhaled slowly and then turned to look at Sam. “I hope it was worth it.”

Sam flexed her fingers, the skin at the knuckles broken. Her cheek was already starting to bruise and the red marks at her throat where Elizabeth’s nails had scraped the skin were still visible. “Elizabeth isn’t going to press charges. She doesn’t want cops involved anymore than I do—”

“I’m not listening to this anymore.” Dante snatched up his keys. “I’m going to Laura’s to talk to Rocco. To figure out what the hell to do. You think about how stupid this all is.”

And then the door slammed behind him.

Webber House: Cameron/Danny’s Room

Danny sat up when Elizabeth lightly knocked on the open door. She’d cleaned up since they’d gotten home—tied back her disheveled hair and cleaned the cut on her face that was bruising, but it was hard to ignore the swelling in her split upper lip from where his mother had landed the first blow.

“Hey, Mom,” Jake said, sitting up with Danny. “You, uh, look better.”

“Thanks,” Elizabeth said dryly.  “Go take a ride with your dad to pick up Aiden, okay? I want to talk to Danny — ” she paused lightly. “If that’s okay with him.”

Jake looked to his brother. “You good?”

“No, but you can go,” Danny muttered.

Jake rolled off the bed and a few minutes later, they heard his footsteps thudding down the steps. Elizabeth remained in the doorway, her arms folded loosely across her chest. “I’m sorry about what happened. I should have left and let your Dad handle the situation.”

“It’s okay—”

“It’s not. ” Elizabeth came in and perched on the edge of the bed, keeping her distance from Danny. “I also didn’t have to hit her back—”

“She hit you first. You get to defend yourself—”

“Maybe. But not at your expense. I’ve tried really hard not to let how your mom and I feel about each other affect you and Jake, and I didn’t do a good job today—”

“She didn’t care.” Danny let his head fall back against the headboard, keeping his gaze from meeting  Elizabeth’s. “I knew she didn’t like you. She used to be better at pretending, but like, Jake and I always knew. She thinks you’re trying to like steal me from her, and it’s stupid. You’re not my mom. I know that.”

Elizabeth was quiet for a moment, then spoke. “I know she worries about being the second-choice, and as much I don’t understand a lot about her, I do understand that. As someone who grew up not feeling like I fit with my family, it’s awful to think that someone who is supposed to love you doesn’t. Even if it’s not true,” she added when Danny opened his mouth. “Your mom’s running on emotion, and she’s not thinking before she acts.”

“How can you defend her?”

“I’m—” Elizabeth smiled faintly. “I guess I am, huh? Your dad thinks I make too many excuses for people, and he’s not wrong. I just—I care about you, Danny. And I don’t think anyone wins if you and your mom are at war with each other. She’s a human who makes mistakes. Terrible, awful mistakes. But she’s human. And she’s terrified that she’s losing her kids. She’s not handling it well. At all, and for that, I won’t make excuses. But the root of it? I understand. I’d do anything for my boys.”

“Yeah, which is why you’re up here trying to be nice to me and make me feel better about my mother, but it just—” Danny hesitated, obviously unsure if he should keep going, but then after a beat, continued. “It makes me uncomfortable. Like it feels like a lie. You don’t like her. She hit you, and you hit her back, and neither one of you remembered I was there.”

Elizabeth tipped her head to the side. “You’re right. She hit me, and I stopped thinking about you. About my case, and how getting arrested for assault didn’t matter. I wanted to hurt her back, and I hit her back. And I kept going. Because in the heat of the moment, I wasn’t thinking about anything or anyone but myself.” She paused. “But that’s over now. The adrenaline’s faded, and while, yes, in the moment, it felt good to hit her — to cause her pain — I’m left with the consequences, Danny. Trying to understand how it happened — and how I can keep it from happening again. Just like you and Rocco, right? You guys made a terrible choice last Saturday. And the consequences keep coming. Rocco’s handling them in his way, and you’re doing yours.”

Danny absorbed all that, then lifted his eyes to meet hers finally. “Okay. That makes sense. I don’t want you and my mom to fight like that. I don’t want it to be like this with her. She’s—she’s my mom. I love her. And I miss my little sister. This all started because of me, you know? My grades and my attitude. And then — well, you know what me and Rocco were doing.” He sat up slightly, folding his legs. “I want it to go back the way it was before, except maybe I get to see Dad more. And I could, like, have these longer visits where I live with him sometimes.”

Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond, then got a notification from her phone. “Someone’s at the door—” She grimaced. “It’s the police. Probably here to take our statements.” She got to her feet. “I don’t think we can go back to how it was — but I promise, Danny, to try to make it better than it is now. It’s all I can do.”

Laura & Kevin’s Condo: Living Room

“I appreciate you letting him stay here this weekend,” Dante said, keeping his gaze on the steps to the second floor — where Rocco was hiding from him. “I don’t—I don’t know what to do. I tried it punishing him, but it just made it worse.”

“I’m a little at a loss myself,” Laura admitted, folding a leg beneath her and looking at Kevin with worry before returning her attention to Dante. “I keep thinking that if I’d handled things with Lucky differently when he was that age, oh, so many things would be different.”

“I didn’t—I didn’t realize he hated living at the penthouse. Or that leaving the house would feel like I was taking him from his mother. Stupid,” Dante muttered. “I should have seen that. I should have known.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “But I don’t know how to fix it.”

“If I may — ” Kevin leaned forward. “I’ve never been in this situation, you understand. Starting a new relationship while my child was living in the house. But I will say — there’s a line between forcing a kid to face the reality of his mother not being here — and pushing him into things he isn’t ready for.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Sam and I are both—it’s not—we’re not—we can’t seem to get on the same page. She’s lost control,” Dante said with a shake of his head. “She’s so scared that Drew and Jason will win full custody — and I don’t think she understands that she’s actually making it happen. Walking out of the station last week with Danny, starting a fight with Elizabeth just before we’re supposed to go to court—I don’t want to leave her. To be one more person she’s losing. But I don’t know how to show Rocco that I’m hearing him, that I care what he thinks.”

“There are no easy answers here, Dante,” Kevin told him. “You’re in a situation where you’re being asked to choose between two people you love. But no mistake, there is a choice to be made here. All you can hope is that you’ll be able to live with what happens when you make it.”

Harborview Towers: Hallway

As soon as Jason had learned the cops had come to the house — and that Elizabeth had sent them away without pressing charges for Danny’s sake — he knew he had to take some kind of action. To get through Sam’s thick skull that she was the architect of her own misery.  It was time for a conversation where he wasn’t going to let her guilt him, to use his past against him.

He already knew he hadn’t been a good father, but his mother was right. He’d made those mistakes, and they were done now. He couldn’t keep letting that guilt drown him — or let Sam use it to get her away.

She swung the door open, her lips set in a mutinous line. “You know, the fact that those damn guards still work for you and don’t give a damn that I said not to let you up here—”

“You don’t like it, Sam, you can move,” Jason said flatly. “Your kids don’t live here anymore, you might as well.”

Her lips parted with surprise and she actually took a step back. “What the hell did you just say to me?”

“You heard me. I gave you the title to this place because it was Danny and Scout’s home,” Jason replied. “But if you don’t want it, sell it. Until you do, I don’t want to hear it.”

“And if you don’t want to hear it, you can leave—” Sam started to close the door, but he slapped his hand against it. “I don’t have to hear you—”

“Yeah, you do. Or I’ll have Elizabeth call Dex Heller back and file charges for assault. So either we have this conversation now, or you can spend the night in lock up. Up to you.”

Sam released her grip on the edge of the door, turned her back and stalked towards the sofa, whirling around when she heard him close the door. “She had no right to come here—”

“To sit in the lobby while Danny asked you to be part of his therapy? Yeah, she’s regretting that, believe me.”

“Don’t act like she’s trying to do me any favors. She never has—”

“Shut up.”

Sam closed her mouth, swallowed hard. Because she recognized that tone. “You don’t get to talk to me like this—”

“I’m done letting you hurt Danny. Don’t — ” He held up a hand when she started to speak again. “I’m done letting you pretend that you’re the better parent because you were here. That’s not going to work anymore. Danny was trying to reach out to you to day, trying to make peace. And he’s talked about wanting to come home, even for an overnight visit because he’s worried about you and about Scout. I  tried to fix things for you with your daughter. I asked Monica to work on getting Drew to drop this custody battle—”

Her dark eyes glimmered with angry tears. “Am I supposed to thank you? This is your fault—”

“Because that’s all that matters, right? Who gets the blame. That’s all you care about is making sure you look good. That someone’s holding your hand and making you feel better. You can’t get out of your own way. You never have—”

“Shut up—”

“I’m done letting you hurt my kids. With hurting my family. Elizabeth has done nothing to deserve the way you’ve treated her for weeks. Nothing but give a damn about our kid—”

“She’s so much better than me, right?”

“Yeah. She is.”

Sam hadn’t been expecting that answer because her eyes grew wide, and her lower lip trembled. “Well, at least you’ve finally said it.” She swiped at her eyes. “I wish I’d never met you. I wish I’d never married you or given you a son — I wish Danny weren’t your son—”

“And I wish Danny didn’t have you as a mother, as long as we’re saying what we really feel,” Jason said. “And believe me, I’m not sure he doesn’t feel the same right now. Especially with what I saw on that security footage. When you rewind this back, Sam, to figure out where you went wrong, getting on that damn elevator to confront Elizabeth — that’s the point of no return. For all of us. Because you know Danny will never forget it. He came to ask you for help, and you made his life worse. I won’t let you do it again. I should have done a better job protecting Jake from you, but I won’t make the same mistake with Danny.”

“Really? Protecting Jake? I didn’t even touch him—”

“No, you didn’t have to. You just let Maureen Harper do the dirty work. Or the guys you hired in the park to hold guns on toddlers,” Jake retorted, and Sam’s face went white. “I made you a promise then, do you remember it? I didn’t keep it then. I let myself believe you had changed. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Are you threatening to kill me again, huh? Is that what this is about?” Sam demanded. “Because wow—”

“No. But I know how to get it done. Today was the last straw. Elizabeth isn’t pressing charges, but that’s not going to stop me from using it in court. I’m getting permanent custody of Danny. Try this again, Sam, and Drew gets a copy of that tape, too. That’s the promise I’m making you”

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