“Blair?” Todd asked in concern as he leaned forward. Blair had stopped talking. Had just halted in mid story, the last words that she had spoke had indicated that someone had accosted her in the airport. Now her eyes were distant and leaking tears as she gripped his hand tightly.

 

“Blair?” Brad asked as he stepped forward touching her arm softly, ignoring Todd’s glare.

 

“They took me… from the airport,” she said quietly her voice wavering as she held back the sob that she felt coming on.

 

“Who? Who took you from the airport?” Brad asked, his eyes meeting Scott’s before returning to Blair.

 

“Peter and a couple of his boys, they took me from the airport to a…”

 

“Where? Where did they take you?” Brad asked quietly.

 

“They took me to a mental hospital,” Blair ignored the tears running down her cheeks, ignored the anger now lining Todd’s face as he realized that something horrible had happened to her in that hospital. “They hurt me… they tried to reprogram me… No they did reprogram me,” she turned her head so she was facing Brad, her eyes locking directly onto his as he stared down at her. “They took away everything that I was and replaced it with something else… they made me somebody else.”

 

“It’s okay, you got out of there obviously and you’re okay now…” Brad started.

 

“I only got out of there because Jackie came after me,” Blair stated angrily.

 

“Jackie? You mean Jackie McNaughton?” Brad asked in surprise, his eyes widening. This was an unforeseen turn of events.

 

“Jackie,” Blair confirmed. “Jackie saved me from that hospital,” her brow wrinkled as she thought for a moment.

 

“How did Jackie even know you were missing?” Brad asked incredulously. They watched as Blair and Scott looked at each other, Scott finally looking away, looking down at the hospital bed. “Blair?”

 

“I was supposed to meet him, I… he owed me a favor and I called it in… he knew I was missing when I didn’t show… If you want to know more you need to ask Jackie.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

“All right Scott,” Brad stopped in the hall, grabbing hold of his arm and forcing him into the empty room across from Blair’s, Todd following them in closing the door behind him. “You want to tell me what the hell is going on?”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Scott said crossing his arms over his chest.

 

“You’re kidding right?” Todd arched an eyebrow at him. “That look that you and Blair had… that meant something.”

 

“I don’t know anything about Blair’s time in the hospital,” Scott said emphatically.

 

“Then you know something about this favor that the McNaughton’s owed Blair,” Brad nodded to himself. “Spill it.”

 

“Not my decision… if Blair or Jackie want you to know what the favors were for then one of them will tell you.”

 

“So Jackie owes her more than one,” Todd smiled thinly.

 

Scott sighed, walking away he flopped down in the lone chair in the room legs sprawled out in front of him. “Jackie owes her 5 markers.”

 

“Five?! That’s pretty high,” Brad said disbelieving. “Unless… this was personal… whatever Blair did for him was not ‘family’ business it was family business.”

 

“Talk to Jackie… or better yet ask Blair,” Scott said standing back up. “I have nothing more to say on the matter.”

 

Yanking the door open he stalked out leaving Brad and Todd staring at each other.

 

“Well?” Jade asked standing in the doorway she watched Scott stalk down the hallway, turning her attention back to Brad she smiled warily. “What do you want me to do now?”

 

“Make sure there are guards at Blair’s door,” Brad muttered. “Then get me Jackie McNaughton on the phone. We’ll get to the bottom of this once and for all.”

 

“I think this all had something to do with McNaughton’s youngest kid… there were rumors that she was grabbed on her way home from school back then… maybe Blair and Scott had something to do with her ending up back home.”

 

“I don’t think they could have done that without Jakob knowing about it,” Brad stated.

 

“Why not? Blair managed to work with the cops for two years and bring down Central without anyone suspecting her.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Todd ran a finger along the side of Blair’s face, smoothing back an errant piece of hair that had fallen across her eyes as he watched her sleep. A small smile crossed her lips as she sighed, sleeping on her side, one hand rested across her stomach, the other tightly gripped his.

 

He didn’t know what he was going to do yet. He should still be angry.

 

Angry that she had kept the fact that she was carrying his child secret and continued to throw Max up in his face.

 

Angry that she had never once told him about her past. Never told him about her family. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t remembered it.

 

But he wasn’t angry anymore.

 

He couldn’t be angry with her after everything that she had been through. Being shot in her own home. A home that was supposed to be her safe haven. Only to find out that the life that she’d been living was a lie. That she had a past that rivaled even his in brutality. He knew that she would beat herself up about her past more than he ever could. He didn’t want her to do that though. She had enough to deal with without wondering if he would think that she was no longer good enough for him, for their kids.

 

For once they were on equal footing in his mind. They had both done things that they weren’t proud of. Both done things that would have, should have destroyed them. The fact that it hadn’t. The fact that they were both still free and alive had to count for something.

 

He looked over at the door as it opened. A woman that he recognized from Brad’s arrival entering slowly with a folder in her hands.

 

“Is she asleep?” she asked glancing down their joined hands.

 

“Yeah… which one are you?”

 

“Oh… sorry,” she extended her hand to him. “Sandy Sturgess, Sandy Davis now… I’m Brad’s wife,” she smiled as he shook her hand. “I brought her financial papers… my brother’s been handling her money since she disappeared... He’s done a really good job for her, the secured account she left is worth a little over $15 mil now,” Sandy said brightly, fidgeting momentarily under Todd’s scrutinizing gaze. She relaxed when he looked away.

 

“That should make her happy,” Todd grumbled as he glanced down at Blair, making sure she was still sleeping. He didn’t think he liked her having that much money. Adding it to the $10 million that she’d gotten from Max in her divorce settlement she was worth almost as much as him. He couldn’t control her if she had money. That was always the one edge that he’d had over her in their relationship.

 

His money was something that she had always coveted. It had been what he hoped to draw her back with. Giving her access to Starr and his money in exchange for a wedding ring and his son.

 

“Probably not… money was never that important to Blair, it was just something that kept her from starving.”

 

“You don’t know the Blair that I know… money is the most important thing to her, hell she married me for mine.”

 

Sandy sighed as she sat the folder on the bed. “You have to remember something Mr. Manning. The Blair Daimler that you knew… that’s not the Blair that we knew, that’s not even the one that she pretended to be for others. The Blair we knew loved her friends, even though she wouldn’t admit it to a soul and she went through hell to protect them… It’ll be interesting to see…”

 

“Interesting to see what?” Todd frowned as he unconsciously rubbed the top of Blair’s hand in circular movements with his thumb.

 

“It’ll be interesting to see which person she ends up being. Will she be the one we knew, or the one that you knew? Or a combination of both…”

 

Todd glanced down at the still sleeping Blair. “She’ll be my Blair,” he growled waving a hand dismissing Sandy.

 

“You seem pretty sure of yourself Mr. Manning.”

 

“I am.”

 

“Well I hope for your sake that you’re correct… Because our Blair, she probably wouldn’t have liked you all that much… and our Blair sure as hell wouldn’t have let you get away with even a fraction of what you’ve done to her over the years.”

 

“You can leave now,” Todd said forcefully.

 

“When she wakes up tell her that my father and Jackson will be here in the morning.”

 

“Yeah… I’ll do that,” Todd muttered under his breath. He remembered Jackson from Blair’s storytelling. The cops’ kid that’d had the hots for her, the one that had convinced Brad of the severity of the crisis when Blair was taken.

 

Todd wasn’t an idiot, he was an intelligent man that wanted to keep what was his.

 

Blair was his and Jackson Sturgess was one man that was not getting in to see her.

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Blair opened her eyes slowly. Still resting on her side she smiled as she felt the arm around her waist, caressing her stomach gently. Smiling she ran her fingers over the hand, barely managing a move before her shoulder twinged and the last few days came rushing back to her in a flood of memories.

 

How much had she lost? How much had she gained? She had her ‘family’ back, but at what cost?

 

That hand gently moving over her stomach could only belong to one person. But he hated her, probably more now than he had before. So he couldn’t be in her hospital bed holding her when her mind was telling her he was supposed to be out in Llanview somewhere figuring out how to use the information he had learned to permanently hide Starr and the child she carried from her.

 

Turning her head suspiciously she followed the hand, to the arm and realized that the hand touching her gently was indeed attached to Todd. A peaceful, sleeping Todd.

 

His eyes snapped open as he realized that someone was watching him. His eyes locking on her suspicious ones he cuddled closer to her. Tightening his arm around her waist he closed his eyes again.

 

He was not prepared to deal with the questions that were lingering in those vivid green eyes. But unfortunately Blair was not about to let him go back to sleep. Not when she was now confused. A feeling that she didn’t like one bit.

 

“Todd?” she whispered as she cast a glance at the clock on her metal stand. 5:30 am. Christ it wasn’t even light out yet.

 

“Go back to sleep Blair,” he ordered quietly moving his head so it rested on the pillow next to hers.

 

“But…”

 

“Go back to sleep,” he whispered in her ear. Touching it softly with his lips, it sent shivers up her spine that she fought to quell. “You don’t want to be tired when Starr gets here do you?”

 

“Starr’s coming back?” she asked surprised turning her head to face him. Not caring that his face was now inches from hers and that he was studying her lips with an alarming intensity.

 

“We still have to tell her about the baby, then we have to figure out when we’re getting married, probably the sooner the better.”

 

“I won’t marry you Todd and you can’t want me to,” Blair said softly. “Not after what…”

 

“After what? After finding out you’re not perfect. Gee I already knew that babe,” Todd said sarcastically. “And yes we will be getting married, if for no other reason than you’re pregnant with my child… again.”

 

“Todd,” Blair shook her head, sighing loudly.

 

“Now go back to sleep,” he whispered kissing the back of her neck, pulling her snug against him once more he closed his eyes.

 

“We’re not getting married,” she muttered under her breath.

 

“Yes we are,” he muttered back.

 

“Jerk.”

 

“No sweet talk babe… you’re in no shape to follow through,” Todd grinned against the back of her head. He had climbed into the bed with her to make a point. Both to her and to anyone who might be aiming to take his place.

 

Blair was his and only his. He would share her with nobody but his children. One of which she still carried, the other she’d already had. And he would fight dirty to prove that to her.

 

*************************************************************************************

 

The ringing of Brad’s cell phone woke him abruptly. Glancing over at where Sandy had buried her head under a pillow he grinned as he picked it up.

 

“Yeah, Davis,” he grumbled as he sat up.

 

“Brad it’s Andrew… are you at the hospital?”

 

“No sir, Sandy and I came back to the hotel. Scott and Jade are standing guard… Why?”

 

“Because I got some disturbing news a few minutes ago,” he heard Andrew sigh.

 

“Yeah,” Brad said warily as he swung his legs off the bed. “What?”

 

“Jakob escaped from prison three days ago,” Andrew growled.

 

“What?! How?!” Brad jumped to his feet. He hurriedly pulled on his pants, digging through his luggage for a new shirt to pull on. “Why weren’t we notified? Don’t they realize…”

 

“Calm down,” Andrew ordered. “From what we can gather he just walked right out. There’s no evidence that he’s heading to Llanview.”

 

“Please,” Brad snorted. “You know as well as I do that he’s on his way here. Blair and I both being here, he won’t be able to help himself. Damn! I should have known this wasn’t going to be easy.”

 

“You need to get her to a safe house as soon as possible, we can’t afford to lose her again.”

 

“There’s some complications… I was going to tell you when you got here but…”

 

“What kind of complications?”

 

“There’s an ex-husband that will probably convince her to remarry him sooner rather than later. He’s pretty determined right now. Plus they’re expecting their second child, they already have a daughter, she’s six. He’s not going to let us whisk her away without a fight, he thinks he can protect her better.”

 

“Shit…” Andrew muttered.  “Can he?”

 

“Can he what?”

 

“Can he protect her?”

 

“I don’t know, he hasn’t done a real great job up to this point. It actually looks like he’s more apt to destroy her than protect her, but…”

 

“Do whatever you feel then… If you think the ex will be an asset use him… if not eliminate him from the scenario for the time being. Blair doesn’t need two people looking to do her in.”

 

“Okay,” Brad pulled on his shirt, holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder as he did up the buttons.

 

“We’ll be there in a few hours,” Andrew stated. “See you soon.”

 

“Later.”

 

“Brad?” Sandy asked as she sat up in bed with concern etched into her features.

 

“Jakob’s escaped… I’m going back to the hospital.”

 

Sandy nodded, she knew better than to try and go with him. What was happening was not part of her life, not part of her past. She was an outsider in this war and that was okay with her. She had heard stories of the others lives in Central and she was glad that she had not met them until their lives there were almost over. She couldn’t have handled who they had been back then. She wasn’t sure that she would ever want to.

 

“I love you,” Brad whispered kissing her gently on the lips before walking out the door.

 

“I love you too,” she whispered as he closed the door behind him.

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Brad marched down the hallway with purpose. He had one sole mission at this very moment and that was to get Blair out of the hospital.

 

With or without Todd Manning’s assistance. He had a feeling it would be easier to get her someplace safe if he had Manning’s help. He looked to have some small measure of control of Blair.

 

Control that he hadn’t seen any man have over her since Jakob. Nodding to Jade he ignored her frantic hand motions as he pushed the door to Blair’s room open, halting suddenly at the sight before him.

 

“Damn,” he muttered under his breath.

 

“That’s what I was going to tell you,” Jade said quietly pulling him away from the door, allowing it to close gently behind him.

 

“How long?”

 

“About two I think, I made rounds, peaked in and there they were… I think Blair woke up around 5:30 or so, I heard voices for a few minutes but I think they went back to sleep… What are you doing here?” Jade asked as she sat back in her chair across from the door to Blair’s room.

 

“Andrew called…”

 

“Yeah? I thought he was coming, did he change his mind?”

 

“No, he wanted to tell me the news himself.”

 

“What news?” Jade asked warily, suddenly alert as she eyed the stiffness of his posture.

 

“Jakob’s escaped.”

 

“What?! How? I don’t…”

 

“Yeah that was my reaction too… Andrew’s not sure how yet, they’re still working on piecing it together. But we’re of the same mindset…”

 

“You think he’s going to come after Blair and you,” Jade said softly, she fingered her gun momentarily before she realized what she was doing and fisted her hands tightly in her lap.

 

“Yeah I do… we need to get her out of here. We need to get her someplace that we can secure better than this hospital.”

 

“Are you going to tell her about Jakob’s escape?”

 

“She has a right to know,” Brad sighed. “Her family has a right to know… When is McNaughton supposed to be here?”

 

“He said he’d be in about 10:00, we should have her moved and secure before we let McNaughton see her though.”

 

“He’s not going to hurt her… He wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of rescuing her from the hell she was trapped in if he was just going to kill her now.”

 

“Still,” Jade shrugged. “I would feel better if we were somewhere more secure.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Todd kissed Blair’s neck gently before easing out the other side of the bed. He had heard the door open minutes before and knew that soon there was going to be a swarm of people… Blair’s friends and family moving in and out of the room.

 

He thought he had proved his point well. Blair knew that he wasn’t going to allow her to stay away from him. He was going to have the ring on her finger, and her name on a marriage certificate as soon as possible. He’d felt a small measure of disappointment that she had tried to refuse him. But he thought he had handled the situation very well.

 

He had also proven his point to her friends. He was not going to be pushed aside while they made decisions about his woman. He was Blair’s ex-husband, soon to be her husband again and he was the father of her unborn child. Any decisions that needed to be made… he would be involved just as fully as everyone else would.

 

Leaning over the side of the bed he touched his lips gently to Blair’s forehead, “Blair,” he whispered smoothing her hair back out of her eyes.

 

He was gratified when she smiled sleepily at him as her eyes opened, the smile didn’t last long as she focused on him and a frown replaced it.

 

“Todd,” she said quietly her eyes watching his face. Waiting for the disgust she knew must be lingering just under the surface to show itself.

 

“Don’t,” he said softly. “We’ll have enough time to talk about it all later… I think people are waiting outside.”

 

She repositioned the bed so she was sitting upright, turning onto her back as she watched him pull his shoes on. She was surprised he had even took them off.

 

“Probably Brad, maybe Jade or Scott,” she murmured.

 

“Probably,” Todd muttered as he walked over and yanked the door open. Revealing Brad and Jade sitting side by side in the hall. “She’s up now.”

 

“Mr. Manning,” Brad nodded as he walked in. Walking right to Blair, he touched her hand lightly before standing beside the bed. Jade stood at the foot, hands wrapped around the bed railing as she waited.

 

“What’s going on?” Blair asked with narrowed eyes as she studied them.

 

“I got a call from Andrew this morning,” Brad started watching Todd pull the chair close to the bed before sitting.

 

“Really… why? I thought he was coming.”

 

“He is… he uh… well he wanted to give me a heads up on a situation that seems to have developed.”

 

“What kind of problem?” Todd asked suspiciously.

 

“He wanted to let me know that Jakob has escaped, there’s some thought that he might try to take us.”

 

“You’re joking… right?”

 

“I wish I was,” Brad sighed. “I want to move you today, I’ve got Scott and Jade working on a safe house for us but so far nothing has given us the security we need.”

 

“The penthouse,” Todd said simply.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Todd,” Blair warned softly.

 

“What? The penthouse is secure… almost everyone is this town thinks we can’t stand the sight of each other, no one will ever think to look for you there,” Todd shrugged. “It makes sense, at least until they can find something else that they think is more suitable.”

 

“Penthouse huh?” Brad mused. “One entrance?”

 

“Yeah, elevator is secure, doorman downstairs… you could probably replace him with one of your guys and no one would think anything of it.”

 

“That would work… at least for short term.”

 

“Brad! You don’t see what he’s trying to do?” Blair asked angrily, her eyes going back and forth between the two men that had just decided something fairly important about her life and never even stopped to ask for her opinion.

 

“What’s he trying to do?” Brad asked with raised brows. He knew exactly what Manning’s motivations were, he had wondered if Blair would also see through the thinly veiled protection speech.

 

“He’s trying to get me firmly ensconced in the penthouse so that once this is over it’ll be harder than hell for me to leave without having to answer a lot of awkward questions.”

 

“What are you talking about?” Todd smirked. “I’m just trying to protect you and our child. What’s wrong with that?”

 

“I won’t do this, find something else,” Blair ordered.

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Blair shook off Todd’s arm as he led her through the door to the penthouse. Brad and Scott following them with one bag each she fought to keep from turning tail and running. This was such a huge mistake.

 

“You’ll pay for this,” she muttered under her breath.

 

“Yeah, yeah. You know you say the sweetest things to me,” Todd grinned. “I moved all your stuff from the mansion back here, it’s already in the master bedroom… Maybe you should lay down and take a nap before McNaughton gets here.”

 

“Don’t tell me what to do Todd.”

 

“He’s right Blair, you’re looking a little pale. I think a nap is a good idea.”

 

“I can’t believe you’re on his side,” Blair stared at Brad, he shrugged and dropped the bag he was carrying on the floor.”

 

“I’m on the side of whoever is trying to protect you, right now that’s Manning.”

 

Blair narrowed her eyes at him, arms crossing over her chest as an evil look crossed her face.

 

“Come on Blair,” Brad laughed.

 

“What?”

  

“You haven’t been able to scare me with that look since we were 13… go lay down or I’ll send you upstairs with Manning, I’m sure he can make sure you lay down.”

 

Blair glanced over to where Todd was leering at her and snarled at them both before turning on her heel and stalking up the stairs.

 

“Your shampoo and crap is already in the bathroom,” Todd called after her. When she was out of sight he turned a quizzical expression on Brad. “You do realize that she’s pissed at you, right?”

 

“Blair can’t stay mad at me for very long, I’m her big brother… You on the other hand,” Brad shook his head. “Show me how you want to assign the rooms the others will be here soon.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Jackson Sturgess claimed to know very few things perfectly well. But there were some that he knew better than his own hand.

 

He knew that he was a huge disappointment to his father.

 

He knew that he was fantastic at making money.

 

And he knew that he had been in love with Blair Daimler since he was fourteen years old.

 

As he sat on the plane, next to his father, heading to Llanview Pennsylvania he knew that he was finally going to have a chance to prove that to her. Ex-husband or no ex-husband. Pregnant or not. Nobody was going to keep him away from her this time.

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Blair knew she wasn’t alone in the room or the bed the second she awakened. Sighing deeply she turned her head, opening her eyes she expected to see Todd but was instead shocked to find Starr curled up next to her. Watching her warily.

 

“Starr? Sweetie what are you doing here?” she asked in surprise. She had assumed that Todd would keep Starr as far away from her as he could until she had agreed to his wishes.

 

“Daddy said that I could come lay down with you, there’s a bunch of strange people downstairs.”

 

“Strange people? You mean my friends from the hospital?” Blair asked with a puzzled frown.

 

“Well they’re here to, but some old man that I haven’t met before just showed up.”

 

“Did he say what his name was?” Blair asked eyes darkening as she looked away. She didn’t need her daughter to verify what she already knew, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself from asking.

 

“Jackie… something,” Starr said with a wrinkled nose. “He tried to pat my head and he told me that I looked like you.”

 

“Well Jackie’s always been an accomplished liar,” Blair muttered as she sat up. Running her hands through her short hair she closed her eyes before slipping off the bed. Pulling her shoes on she started for the door surprise stopping her when Starr jumped off the bed and reached for her head.

 

“Mommy?” Starr said softly yanking hard on her mothers’ hand.

 

“What is it sweetie?” Blair asked quietly.

 

“I’m glad that you and the baby are okay.”

 

“You are? I thought you were mad at me and the baby,” Blair said kneeling in front of her.

 

“I was, I thought you had lied to me. But daddy said that you were just protecting yourself by telling us that the baby was Max’s.”

 

“He did, did he?” Blair asked with narrowed eyes.

 

“You’re not mad at him are you mommy?” Starr asked with wide eyes. “He wanted to keep it a secret but I heard him yelling at one of your friends downstairs and he told him that he wouldn’t allow his baby to be used as bait. I didn’t understand until he told me.”

 

“It’s okay,” Blair hugged her tightly, kissing her daughters soft hair as she closed her eyes. “Daddy is right about one thing though, this baby isn’t going to be used as bait.”

 

Standing upright once again she took Starr’s hand. “Let’s go see what plans they think they’ve made for us.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Todd was furious. Absolutely insanely angry with Brad right now. Brad’s big plan to lure Jakob out into the open was to have someone else, once again, claim to be the father of his child.

 

He’d been down that road once, he wouldn’t travel it again.

 

“No,” he reiterated once again. “You are not going to claim my child as yours so you can lure Jakob out. Think of another plan.”

 

“Look, Jakob’s grand plan all revolves around Blair and I. If he thinks that Blair is pregnant with my kid than he backs off long enough for us to track him,” Brad explained calmly as he watched Todd wear a path in the carpet.

 

“Or he grabs me thinking he’s got what he wanted and kills me once the baby is born,” Blair said from the top of the stairs where she was standing with Starr by the hand.

 

“We won’t let that happen,” Brad said turning to her. They watched her descend the stairs slowly, her eyes locked on his.

 

“I know you want to protect me Brad. But you can’t… you’re just as much of a target as I am. Jakob wants both of us, if he thinks that you’re the father of this baby he’ll discard you.”

 

“When the lady is right, the lady is right,” the tall man standing in the doorway said. Blair looked over in surprise. She had forgotten momentarily that Starr had said he was here. Her eyes studied him quickly, taking in the silvering hair, the lanky form. The two ever present bodyguards. Samuel and Jarvis stood flanking him on either side.

 

He had changed very little since the last time that she had seen him.

 

“Jackie,” Blair nodded as she let go out of Starr’s hand.

 

Walking past Brad she saw Jade and Scott both move to similar flanking positions behind her. Her lieutenants knew protocol as well as she did. As she stopped in front of him she let her hands hang at her sides, palms facing out to signify that she had no weapon on her person. Jade and Scott stood behind her, ready to defend her if necessary from attack.

 

“I see you lost the dead weight,” Jackie commented his eyes lighting on where Todd was standing, Starr leaning back against him, his hands resting on his shoulders.

 

Blair smirked as she heard the muttered obscenities from Brad.

 

“You knew where she was the entire time… didn’t you?” he accused moving up so he was standing near Blair but still not becoming part of the group.

 

“Well yes I did,” Jackie grinned his eyes never wavering from where they had returned to Blair’s face.

 

“And you didn’t feel the need to pass that information along? You knew we were looking for her,” Brad snarled angrily.

 

“You didn’t send the right people to ask the right questions,” Jackie glanced over at him, patting Blair on the shoulder he walked into the room nodding to the rest of the group before he seated himself on the couch. Patting the cushion next to him he waited for Blair to sit before he continued. “If you had sent, say Scott to question me on the location of his commander I would have, of course, shared what information I knew. But you didn’t send him…”

 

“No I came myself,” Brad stated angrily.

 

“Yes and as Jakob’s lieutenant you had every reason to want to see Blair dead as opposed to alive. I did what I believed to be the correct thing for Blair at the time. She said to trust Scott and Jade and I did. If you had sent one of them you would have had her back within days.”

 

“This is bullshit,” Brad muttered. “I would never want to hurt Blair, she’s my sister, she’s my blood.”

 

“Yes but I didn’t know that… I had only what little information that I had gleaned from Blair from our meetings. In those meetings she brought Scott with her, mentioned Jade and that was it. Those were the only two people that I would have entrusted my information with. Especially with the shape that I found her in.”

 

“Yes that’s what I wanted to talk about,” Blair said returning Jackie’s attention to her.

 

“What do you want to know?” Jackie asked warily. He knew of course what she wanted. He wasn’t a stupid man. But the things he had found when he had finally gotten to her, the information that he had uncovered. He felt it would be better to never let her know any of that.

 

“I want to know everything you know, I want to know what they tried to do to me and what they accomplished while I was stuck there.”

 

“Blair…” Jackie started, seeing the mulish expression on her face he stood pacing in front of her. “They wanted to reprogram you.”

 

“Yeah I remember that much,” Blair muttered. “I want to know why.”

 

“Why?” Jackie laughed hollowly his expression grim looking down at her. “They wanted to destroy you and they wanted to destroy those that they felt helped you.”

 

“What are you talking about?” she asked with narrowed eyes. “The only people that helped me were cops.”

 

“Yes… but you used cops to protect six of your own. They were attempting to reprogram you. They tried to take away what humanity you had and turn you into a cold blooded assassin with only one mission.”

 

“Oh my god,” Blair whispered looking down at her hands, closing her eyes tightly. “They wanted me to kill the others… I remember,” she looked up at him her eyes bright with unshed tears. “I remember. But it didn’t work. Right? It didn’t work.”

 

“I’m sorry Blair,” Jackie turned away. “It did work, when we got to you it was already done the doctors were just waiting for the Gorsline brat to show back up. We just happened to get to you first.”

 

“Jackie?”

 

“We knew it had worked the first time we saw you, so I had Jarvis grab one of the doctors and forced him to try and undo it.”

 

“Try? You mean it didn’t work?”

 

“No, the programming was to deep or something. He couldn’t undo the programming so he erased it. He wiped your memory of everything. When you came out of the last hypnosis session it was all gone. You didn’t feel the insatiable need to kill your friends because to you they had never existed. All your memories everything was gone.”

 

Scott laid a hand across Blair’s shoulder, squeezing it slightly as she stared stonily up at Jackie.

 

“My daughter owes her life to you, if you hadn’t intervened. If you and Scott hadn’t rescued her she would be dead. You only asked for markers in return, you could have asked for money, power whatever and I would have given it to you in exchange for her life. You could have taken my family down with the rest but you didn’t. One of those markers was for protection and I failed you.”

 

“You didn’t fail me Jackie,” Blair said softly. “You saved me, if I had killed the others that would have killed me.”

 

“I took everything that you were away. I had no choice to keep your family alive. I put a new past in place for you, I gave you some money, a job, watched over you when I could without drawing attention…”

 

“And you protected me. Ginny only found me because of Todd, how’s that for irony?”

 

“Still my guys should have been on you tighter. I let them lax off on security because no one had found you and it was years later.”

 

“Jackie,” Blair sighed, standing she moved over to him, her eyes moving to Todd’s momentarily before Jackie once again claimed her attention. “I’m alive, they’re alive, we need you and your men to help us with Jakob, if you do that we can consider ourselves even.”

 

“What you’re canceling out the remaining four markers if we help you?” Jackie asked in confusion.

 

“Well no, I’m keeping the markers. You never know when an ex-husband or husband is going to get out of hand, but we’ll be even. You help us now, you don’t owe me for what you consider a failure before.”

 

Jackie stared down at her. “Okay, tell me what you need, how many people and I’ll see what I can do.”

 

“Good. Now that we’ve resolved that I’m hungry.”

 

“I ordered Chinese,” Todd grinned at her as they heard a knock at the door. He frowned as he walked over to it. Scott beating him as he moved faster, cutting him off as he threw a hand over the doorknob. “What?”

 

“Mr. Manning you don’t know whose there,” Scott reminded him as he peered through the hole. “Shit.”

 

“What?” Todd asked. “It’s the delivery guy isn’t it?”

 

“I wish,” Scott sighed pulling the door open. “Hello Andrew… Jackson,” he said stiffly.

 

Todd frowned at the two men standing in the door. One a cop, the other his rival. Glancing behind him he saw Blair standing with Starr, one hand on her stomach the other on Starr’s shoulder as she stared at the man standing in the doorway.

 

“Jackson,” she said softly her eyes flickering between the two men.

 

“Blair… long time no see.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Todd studied his rival from the corner of his eye. He personally couldn’t see what Blair had seen in the guy. He was clean cut, clean-shaven and the same age as her.

 

The fact that his rival was currently studying him in the same manner that he was pissed him off for some unknown reason. He could already tell from Jackson’s blatant disregard for him and Starr that he didn’t see them as a threat.

 

He would have to prove his point more strongly to Jackson than he had to the others. He wasn’t letting Blair walk away from him. Not again.

 

With his daughter seated in his lap he had left enough room between the arm of the couch and himself for Blair to sit next to him. He wasn’t taking any chance of Jackson taking the empty place on the other side of him and Blair having to sit between them. Nope. Not going to happen.

 

When he wasn’t busy studying Jackson he was studying Blair. She was currently engaged in a quiet discussion with Andrew Sturgess, Jackie and Brad. He couldn’t hear what they were discussing but from the way Blair and Brad both were shaking their heads in denial he could tell that they didn’t approve of whatever they were talking about.

 

“Hey dad?” Starr whispered leaning up to him.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Why is that guy staring at you?”

 

“Who? Jackson?” Todd looked down at his daughter tightening his grip around her. Glancing over at where Jackson was now blatantly studying him he frowned at him before turning his attention back to Starr.

 

“Yeah… he doesn’t like you… does he?” Starr asked glancing over at where Jackson was now studiously avoiding looking at them. Instead he had fastened his eyes on Blair with just a hint of a smile touching his lips.

 

“Probably not.”

 

“He likes mommy though, he keeps smiling at her,” Starr said her little eyes flicking between Blair and Jackson. “But she’s not paying attention to him.”

 

“Good,” Todd muttered under his breath. Blair looked over at him then, pursing her lips as she pressed a hand to the middle of her back she watched him. He winked at her and she touched Brad’s arm softly whispering something in his ear before walking over to them.

 

Standing in front of them she gently kicked Todd’s shoe with hers looking down at them. He smiled up at her shifting slightly so she could sit beside them. His arm going around her shoulder she leaned into him resting her head momentarily against his before she leaned back.

 

“You okay?” he whispered into her ear keeping his arm tight around her.

 

“Yeah…” she glanced over at where Jackson was eyeing them. “I don’t like Jackson being here, he could make things problematic,” she said softly.

 

“Between us?” he asked cautiously. She looked up at him, her eyes wide as she thought for a second before sighing and resting her head on his shoulder.

 

“Yeah… Jackson can be… well…”

 

“Don’t worry about Jackson babe, I can take care of him,” Todd promised.

 

“No,” she looked over at him. “I can handle Jackson, I’ve done it before. I just don’t want you and Starr to have to worry about him.”

 

“Starr and I aren’t worried…are we shorty?” Todd nudged Starr with his hand, their daughter turning to look up at her parents with a smile on her face.

 

“If you want mommy I can take care of Jackson,” Starr said with laughing eyes. Her mother frowned and Todd laughed.

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Blair turned over on her side. Bedtime had come and those that were staying in ‘protective’ custody had been assigned rooms. With Jade and Colleen sharing the floor of Starr’s she had insisted that Starr sleep with her. Especially once she discovered that Todd thought that they were sharing the master bedroom.

 

As long as they could keep Starr between them she didn’t have to worry about their relationship taking a physical turn.

 

Even though she wanted their physical relationship to resume.

 

Besides her shoulder was sore, making love to Todd would only make it hurt more. Nope keeping Starr between them was like having a nice little wall up that could only be breached when she was ready.

 

She did love him. The feelings for him that she thought long buried were clamoring for her and his attention. Screaming for her to tell him so that they could be free to show themselves.

 

He had been good today. Even with Jackson’s blatant dismissal of him and the many rude comments that had been made he had been cordial, even nice. She hadn’t thought he had it in him to ignore direct attacks on him.

 

Some of had to be for her benefit. Todd wanted her back and was probably unsure of her feelings for Jackson. If he resorted to snide comments and insults than he would be no better than Jackson. So he had been good. She was proud of him for rising above and not taking Jackson’s bait.

 

She didn’t think it would last though. Todd was going to get tired of being attacked and fight back if Jackson was planning on staying for any extended period of time.

 

She didn’t like the fact that Brad had shared her history with Todd with Jackson. He wasn’t a cop, could hardly be called a friend at times and it was really none of his business.

 

She had to wonder if Brad didn’t want her and Todd separated and was using Jackson to accomplish that. She wouldn’t put it past him.

 

She reached out one hand smoothing the hair on Starr’s head before reaching across their daughter and stroking Todd’s face softly with her fingertips. She thought she’d forgotten what it felt like to be loved and protected by Todd. It felt nice.

 

Comfortable.

 

It scared her. Because while right now he claimed to love her, that could just as quickly change and she could become the enemy, with only her total destruction his main goal. She’d been there before. She didn’t want to go through that again.

 

His nose wrinkled as she touched him lightly, but he didn’t wake and she softly smiled.

 

Leaning down she kissed her daughters smooth cheek, before leaning over and kissing Todd’s chin. He hadn’t shaved since she’d been in the hospital and the scruff that had grown made his skin rough against her lips. She pressed her cheek against his closing her eyes as she inhaled his scent. “I love you,” she whispered against his skin before climbing out of bed adjusting the covers over them before she departed the room.

 

She could only make an admission of love to him while he was sleeping. She was safe then, he wouldn’t think he had won. Because he hadn’t. Not yet anyway.

 

She didn’t see Todd’s eyes snap open or the lazy smile that creased his face as he watched her close the door. She loved him. She had said the words and he was going to hold her to them.

 

Then he frowned. Where the hell was she going?

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Blair folded the blanket on the floor setting it over the back of the couch as she flopped down on it. Leaning her head back she closed her eyes. Things were just weird now. She had never her wildest dreams imagined that Todd would accept what she had been.

 

But he had. At least for the moment he seemed to.

 

Knowing Todd that could change on a seconds notice.

 

“Couldn’t sleep?” she heard Jackson’s soft query from where he was standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

 

“No,” she said softly. She studied him as he walked towards her. With most of her memories back she remembered him. She remembered the almost insane way that she had loved him as a teenager and she waited for those feelings to resurface. To rear their ugly heads and make her relationship with Todd uncomfortable.

 

But they didn’t. She could look at him now and honestly say that she had loved him. But those feelings were muted in comparison to what she felt for Todd. It was strange.

 

He settled onto the opposite side of the couch turning his head to face her as he waited for her to finish scrutinizing him before he relaxed.

 

“I… you look different,” Jackson started awkwardly, turning sideways on the couch he faced her, laying an arm across the back of the couch he studied her. “I liked your other hair color better,” he commented, reaching out one hand he touched her hair. He drew his hand back when she scowled at him “Sorry.”

 

“I told you way back when that it wasn’t my real color,” she said shortly, resting one hand on her stomach she watched him from the corner of her eye continue to study her. “What?”

 

“Your eye color’s different too… you look the same, older though.”

 

“I wore contacts back then,” she said softly. “I hated them.”

 

“I always thought the brown didn’t match your face,” he grinned before becoming serious once again. “I meant to give this to you earlier,” he said digging in his pockets then extending his hand to her.

 

“What?” Blair queried turning to face him with a sigh, staring down at his open hand she gaped at what she saw there. “That’s my knife,” she said softly, picking it up she stared at it her hands clenching tightly around it. “Where did you…”

 

“Don’t ask.”

 

“I thought it would be in evidence… you know from me using it on Adam.”

 

“It should be.”

 

Blair stared at him hard as he finally looked away staring into the fire that was still burning in the fireplace. Finally she looked away staring back down at the knife in her hand.

 

“Brad gave that to you huh?”

 

“Yeah… birthday present.”

 

“I would never have thought to give you a knife for your birthday.”

 

Blair was silent as she looked down at it. She could still make out the inscription on the knife and it made her heart ache. Brad was her big brother, and she hadn’t remembered him for so many years. Did that make her a horrible person? That she hadn’t remembered the person that had once upon a time been one of the most important people in her life.

 

“You’re different,” Jackson said softly as he watched a flurry of emotions streak across her face.

 

“What are you talking about?” Blair asked in confusion.

 

“You’re softer,” Jackson grinned again as she scowled once more at him. “Okay you’re not as cold as you used to be,” he amended with a laugh.

 

“You’re nuts.”

 

“No… I’m not… I watched you almost gut a man, Adam did die from his injuries… I don’t know if dad told you… but here, when we got here,” he shook his head. “You hugged my dad, I thought you were gonna cry…”

 

“It’s the hormones from the pregnancy, they’re making me a sap,” Blair interjected.

 

“Yeah… sure… But I watched you with Manning too… you let him touch you, comfort you. You leaned into him… back when we were kids you didn’t let anyone touch you,” Jackson explained haltingly. “Ever.”

 

“Things were different back then Jackson, you know what my life was like. If I had shown affection to anyone Jakob would have used it against me. Not to mention every other person itching to take my place in Central. It was a defense mechanism.”

 

“That was probably some of it, but you love Manning and you’re not treating him as if he has a target on his back. Not like you used to treat me back then.”

 

“Todd can take care of himself.”

 

“Against Jakob?” Jackson asked incredulously.

 

Blair sighed. “Don’t start Jackson, Todd can take care of himself, besides… everyone thinks we can’t stand the sight of each other, so Jakob won’t think to make him a target.”

 

“I think you’re underestimating Jakob.”

 

“No I’m not, Todd’s going to keep a low profile and keep himself and our daughter safe. Brad and I are going to be the only ones that Jakob and Ginny go after,” she stated coldly her eyes narrowing.

 

“That’s the Blair I remember.”

 

“What?”

 

“The one that would put her own life on the line for her friends and family.”

 

“She never went anywhere.”

 

“Yeah but I think she’s been buried for a long time… you love him don’t you?” he asked changing the subject.

 

“Jackson…”

 

“If you love him,” Jackson stopped staring into the fire. “If you love him I won’t interfere.”

 

“What?” Blair asked in shock staring at his stony profile.

 

“I know what it’s like to love someone and have interference from others,” Jackson stated bitterly, “I won’t interfere if you love him… but if he hurts you again…”

 

“Does everyone know about our past?” Blair muttered running her hands over her face.

 

“Sandy mentioned it to me when she called to tell us that you’d been found. Anyway, if he hurts you like he did before,” he shook his head then stared at her. “I will interfere then,” he promised.

 

On the top of the steps, cloaked in darkness Todd stared down at them. That was one promise that he was going to make sure that Jackson never got to keep.

   *************************************************************************************

 

“Blair?” Jade whispered touching her foot softly. Old Blair, the Blair that she had grown up with would have woke up swinging, knife in hand if she had so much as felt a whisper of a touch while she was sleeping. This new incarnation of her boss was a lot less jumpy.

 

Which was probably a good thing since she had been trying to wake her from the door for almost 30 minutes and really didn’t want to be belted. Blair’d had a mean right hook when they were kids.

 

Scott had left with Todd to go to The Sun early this morning. So early that Scott had been grumbling and groaning. Scott, like Blair was not a morning person. It was one of the reasons that they had been such good friends.

 

Blair and Brad had both ordered guards on Todd and Starr until Jakob and Ginny had been captured. So Scott had complied, Blair was his boss after all. He muttered obscenities as they were leaving, only quieting when Brad had told him that he if he was upset about the early hour he could always switch with Colleen and be on Starr detail. The thought of following the youngster into a school had been enough to placate him.

 

That and the fact that Todd had laughed at him, the thought of coffee had calmed Scott enough to quit complaining.

 

“Blair?” she whispered again jerking on Blair’s foot sharply.

 

Blair shot up like a rocket, eyes wide as she glared at Jade. “Whaaa… Jade what are you doing in my room?” she asked grumpily massaging her throbbing shoulder gently.

 

“It’s after nine… Jackie’s waiting for you to call him back. I think he managed to set up a meeting with Jakob.” Jade backed away as Blair crawled out of the bed.

 

“That was quick,” Blair said softly pulling her robe on, she ran a hand through her hair grimacing as she caught her reflection in the mirror.

 

“Nobody’s here,” Jade hid a grin behind her hand as she saw Blair frown.

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“Scott went with Todd to The Sun. Colleen is with Starr at school, Brad had a meeting with your local law enforcement, Andrew went with him. Jackie went to his hotel to make some calls and Sandy and Jackson went to get him checked into a hotel.”

 

“Good… Why’d Scott go with Todd?” Blair asked as she opened the closet and started rifling through for something casual to wear. Todd had been busy, all her clothes from the mansion had already been put away and it looked like he had found the boxes that she’d left at the millhouse.

 

“You said you wanted Starr and Todd protected,” Jade said perching on the side of the bed.

 

“I don’t think Todd’s really a target… do you?”

 

 “Not really, but Brad also wanted someone to keep an eye on what he printed about you in The Sun. He didn’t want anything printed that could pull anyone else in. So no pictures, no descriptions, nothing that Jakob could use to gain access or information that he doesn’t already have about you.”

 

“And Todd agreed to that?”

 

“Not really, but Brad said that if he didn’t agree we would move you into a safe house alone and he relented. I don’t think he likes the thought of Jackson being alone with you.”

 

“Great,” Blair nodded absently as she studied her wardrobe. There was nothing in here that she could wear to a prospective meeting with Jakob. It had been a long time since she’d bought or worn jeans. If she showed up at the meeting with Jakob dressed like she normally dressed Jakob wouldn’t see her as a threat. She needed to look dangerous. She couldn’t look dangerous in sundresses or pant suits.

 

She sighed deeply turning to face Jade. She needed her old wardrobe. “Hey Jade can we send someone out to buy some jeans? Maybe a couple of T-shirts, turtlenecks?”

 

“Yeah,” Jade frowned, her brow wrinkling as she looked past Blair to the closet. It looked like there was nothing but silk, satin and linen in there. “Christ Blair you’ve turned into Colleen.”

 

Blair growled at her as her foot began tapping. “I’m really not in the mood.”

 

“Yeah, well,” Jade contemplated her, tapping a finger on her chin as she thought. “I think black for the jeans and such, it’ll minimize the fact that you’re pregnant. Maybe Jakob won’t even notice it if we do this right. We’re also going to have to do something about your hair and eyes as well.”

 

“Yeah I know,” Blair said softly fingering a strand of her hair. “Chestnut brown,” she muttered. “I always hated that color.”

 

“What about the contacts you used to wear?” Jade asked crossing her arms over her chest as she stood.

 

“I think my contacts are in the bag that Jackie brought with him. Of course they’re pretty old. They might not be any good. I guess we could always send someone out to get a pair of those disposable, non-prescription ones.”

 

“Good… I’ll go send somebody out for clothes. It’s too bad Colleen went with Starr, she’d be perfect for this. But I think we can improvise something.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

“How’s this?” Todd grumbled tossing the board at Scott. He was tired of playing with the headlines and pictures for the next edition of The Sun. He couldn’t seem to make Scott understand that he ran a newspaper. A newspaper that ran high profile news items and Blair right now was most definitely considered a high profile news item.

 

“That’s good,” Scott bit back a grin. Todd was as easy to goad into a temper as Blair used to be. He wondered idly how they hadn’t managed to kill each other yet. “I know what you’re thinking Mr. Manning.”

 

“Yeah? Than you know I think that you’re a pain in the ass,” Todd muttered.

 

“I’m just doing my job.”

 

“I thought you were a cop?”

 

“I am.”

 

“Then how is this,” Todd waved at the copies of the morning’s cover littering his desk, “part of your job?”

 

“I may be a cop, but I’m also Blair’s second. I’m just protecting her interests.”

 

“You don’t need to protect Blair from me… I’m not going to hurt her.”

 

Scott raised his eyebrows as he sat down on the couch. “See you say that now… but what’s to say that when our Blair, the Blair we grew up with rears her head, and you know she will that you won’t change your mind.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Todd stared at him with narrowed eyes. “You think that if I see what Blair was like as a kid that I’ll bail?”

 

Scott shrugged. “Never know… I do know that I won’t allow you to hurt her the way you have in the past. With everything she’s been through she doesn’t deserve that.”

 

“Blair doesn’t need you to protect her from me,” Todd snorted. “She’s more than able to protect herself.”

 

“Who said I was protecting her from you? Maybe we just don’t want to see Blair go to prison for murdering you if you choose to destroy her instead of loving her.”

 

“Blair won’t hurt me, at least not physically,” Todd laughed relaxing back in his chair.

 

“See you keep thinking of her the way she’s been. You don’t realize what she was like before, if Blair had been Blair when you pulled some of the shit you did she would have put a gun to your head and killed you… and she probably would have had little to no regret at doing it.”

 

Todd stared at him. Blair had always been dangerous to him. She made him feel and want things that he shouldn’t want and feel. The idea that the woman that had tormented him since their first meeting at Rodi’s would change so much that she would pull a gun and kill him amazed him.

 

The two men watched each other, Scott breathing a sigh of relief at what he saw in Todd’s eyes. He understood, finally he believed.

 

“Why does she seem closer to you than Brad?” Todd asked suddenly as he pushed the image of Blair as a homicidal gun-wielding maniac to the back of his mind. He couldn’t concentrate on that now. Right now he had to worry about keeping her and their baby alive and safe. After this was over they could discuss how they would handle Blair’s newfound memories.

 

“Because Blair sees Brad as a sibling and I’m her friend. We’ve always been better friends that she and Brad, she depends on me more.”

 

“If Blair sees Brad as a brother why wouldn’t Jackie tell him that he knew where she was?”

 

“Blair might love Brad, but back then she didn’t trust him very much. I was her best friend, she trusted me when she had nobody else. And even then she didn’t trust me enough to tell me about Jakob’s master plans.”

 

“You were her best friend? What about the girl? Jade? I thought…”

 

“You thought because they were both female that they would be close?” Scott grinned as Todd nodded tapping his fingers against the desk.

 

“Blair’s never been a friendly with females type person. Maybe it’s cause of the type of life she lived.”

 

“I don’t think I like the idea of Blair having a bunch of guys as friends,” Todd frowned.

 

“Better get used to it. Between me and Brad, Jackson and the others from our team… she’s got a lot of male friends, she seems to collect them.”

 

“Jackson,” Todd muttered. “There’s something about that guy I don’t like.”

 

“Join the club… I should warn you that he’s probably up to no good where you and Blair are concerned. If I were you I’d watch my back around him.”

 

“He told Blair last night that he wouldn’t interfere.”

 

“He lied,” Scott said quietly. “Jackson will do whatever it takes to get Blair, if that includes undermining your relationship with her he’ll do it. If I’d known he was coming I would have suggested that you and Blair remarry before he got here. But…”

 

“You don’t like Jackson I take it?”

 

“He’s a goody two shoes that thinks he can save Blair from herself. If Blair wanted to be saved that would be one thing but she’s always liked the way she was so…” Scott shrugged. “I wouldn’t let Blair know that you were eavesdropping on them last night.”

 

“Blair knows me well enough that she knows I lurk, besides she was so quiet yesterday, I was worried,” Todd said defensively.

 

“Still… I wouldn’t tell her, Jackson’ll show his true colors eventually. You just need to wait him out.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Sandy watched her twin unpack with suspicious eyes.

 

Jackson was up to something. She hadn’t figured out what it was yet. But she was almost positive that it had something to do with keeping Blair and Todd apart.

 

“I think you should go back to Texas,” she said softly as she watched him hang his suits up in the closet.

 

“I’ll go back when this is over… Blair might need my help,” Jackson said absently.

 

“If they need any financial advice I’ll be sure to call you,” Sandy said sarcastically. “I think all Blair needs is her team and she’ll be fine.”

 

“That’s not the kind of help I was offering,” Jackson smiled thinly.

 

“Jackson,” Sandy sighed.

 

“What?”

 

“I thought we covered this on the drive over here. Blair is in love with her ex-husband, you saw it with your own two eyes. They’re expecting another child and if Jakob and Ginny don’t kill her before this is over they’ll probably be remarried soon.”

 

“I wouldn’t count on that.”

 

“Jackson,” Sandy stood in front of him, she wrapped her hand tightly around his forearm as she stared at him. “Leave them alone,” she ordered softly.

 

“I can’t,” he said softly, smiling sadly down at her. “She’s mine Sandy. She was mine long before she even knew who Todd Manning was.”

 

“She was never yours Jackson, you wanted her to be… but she wasn’t. Leave them alone, if she’s meant to be with you it’ll happen if not….”

 

“I can’t… not after waiting this long.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Todd and Scott stood in the doorway of the penthouse watching the frantic activity happening within. It seemed like more activity than seven people should be capable of generating.

 

Brad and Jackie had heads bent over the end table, Brad pointing at something a sheet of paper. Jackie nodding, making notes on the small notepad that he held.

 

Colleen was seated cross-legged on the floor quickly and efficiently loading what looked like 9mm clips. She was talking quietly with a man that Todd recognized from his arrival with Andrew and Jackson that day prior. Doug something or other.

 

Jade was walking down the stairs holding a leather jacket in her hands a cell phone pressed between her shoulder and ear.

 

“Hey Scott… it’s about damn time we were about to send out a search party,” Nick laughed as he came in from the kitchen holding a small vial filled with green liquid in his hands.

 

“Is that?” Scott asked peering quietly at the vial held in his hands.

 

“Yes it is, Andrew brought it with him. I don’t know what he’s planning on using it for but he thought it important enough to bring so…” Nick shrugged.

 

“What is it?” Todd asked curiously.

 

“It’s the drug that Blair used to get Brad out of Central. The one that made him go nuts and shoot Jakob,” Scott grinned.

 

“You keep that shit away from me,” Brad called with a grimace from across the room.

 

“You are aware that you shooting Jakob was not part of my plans… right?” Blair asked as she walked down the stairs. All eyes were on her as she walked. Scott grinned widely as Jade winked at him.

 

“What the hell did you do to your hair?!” Todd exploded as he got a good look at her. The hair was the first thing he noticed as he saw her.

 

His Blair was gone. In her place stood the woman that she must have been before.

 

Dark brown hair that seemed dull in comparison to the sandy blonde that she was normally.

 

Brown eyes that didn’t sparkle with anything near the power of the emerald green. There was a hardness in the brown that he had never noticed in the green. It momentarily disconcerted him from noticing what she was wearing.

 

She was dressed in clothing that he had never before seen her don. Black jeans that fit her snugly, a black turtleneck that fit her loosely. A holster with no weapon was flopping loosely over her shoulder having not been secured yet.

 

This was not his Blair. This woman looked to be cruel in ways that his Blair could never be cruel.

 

“You don’t like it?” Blair ran her fingers through her hair. “I always hated this hair color, but Jakob’s going to be expecting to see certain things at the meeting tonight. This is one of them.”

 

“What are the others? Your eyes, your clothes. You’ve changed everything,” Todd growled as he stalked a circle around her. She didn’t even look pregnant with these clothes on. If he looked closely he could see the small mound that was their unborn child, with her turtleneck pulled out the way it was you could barely tell unless you were looking.

 

“Todd,” Blair sighed. Ignoring his anger for the moment her eyes centered on Scott. “You should change… I think Jade laid out stuff on your bed.”

 

“You’re not meeting with Jakob tonight?!” Todd asked in disbelief.

 

“When would you propose we meet with him? After he tries to kill one of us again?” Blair snapped.

 

“Blair you’re hurt, you’re still recovering from being shot. What’s the rush?” Todd wheedled in what he thought was an extremely patient voice.

 

“Look we’re lucky that Jackie was able to set up a meeting at all. If Jakob wants to meet tonight then dammit we’re meeting tonight. He could have gone underground already and we’d have no way of getting to him until he struck.”

 

Todd stared hard at her before scowling. “So when do we leave?”

 

Blair’s eyes widened before she laughed sharply. “We’re leaving in about three hours, you, Starr and Colleen are leaving for Viki’s in about an hour.”

 

“No way babe, the only place I’m going is wherever you’re going,” Todd stated stubbornly. “You can send Starr with Colleen to Viki’s but I’m not going anywhere without you. So if you’re planning on meeting Jakob tonight than I’ll be right there with you. I don’t trust this guy as far as I can throw him.”

 

“Todd,” Blair sighed loudly again. “I don’t trust him either. But there’s protocol that needs to be followed. Jakob won’t hurt us until after the meeting is finished. And that’s only if we can’t agree on a solution to our little problem.”

 

“I’m still not going anywhere without you,” Todd reiterated.

 

“Todd… look,” Blair ran her fingers through her hair in agitation ignoring their apt audience. “You can’t go. We’re each allowed two bodyguards, any more than that will be a blatant message that we don’t trust Jakob.”

 

“We don’t trust Jakob,” she heard Brad mutter softly, Scott laughed softly but she ignored them as she stared intently into Todd’s eyes.

 

“Then I’ll be one of your bodyguards… you are not leaving this penthouse without me.”

 

“Todd I have my guards already. Jakob is going to expect to see Jade and Scott by my side. They’re my lieutenants and they’re here with me. Jakob knows that. If he sees anybody besides them there he’ll get suspicious and finger them as a cop.”

 

“Now Blair,” Todd smirked. “Do you really think anyone could mistake me for a cop?”

 

“He can be one of my guards,” Brad said quietly. Both Todd and Blair swung their heads in his direction to see him standing arms crossed as he watched them argue with an amused expression.

 

“Brad you can’t be serious,” Blair protested.

 

“Look… you didn’t save any of my guys. I was going to just use Doug and Nick as my guards, but I’ll use Doug and Manning instead. Nick can stay with Colleen and your daughter.”

 

“Brad he doesn’t understand how important this is. If he loses his temper in the middle of it…”

 

“He won’t,” Brad eyed Todd with a searching expression. “Manning is going to be a good boy, keep his mouth shut and listen. Maybe then he’ll understand what Central was really like for us.”

 

Blair opened her mouth as if to protest but stopped, nodding stiffly. “Fine,” she muttered. “That’s just fine…I’m going to see if Starr is ready.” With that she turned and angrily stalked her way back up the stairs, her posture rigid, her anger at her loss of control of the situation evident in the way she held herself.

 

“Don’t make me regret this Manning,” Brad said quietly moving up next to him. “Tonight is dangerous for Blair and I.”

 

“I thought Blair said there were protocols that needed to be followed. That Jakob wouldn’t hurt you tonight.”

 

“There are protocols. But that doesn’t mean that Jakob won’t try anything. He wants Blair and I in the worst way, we’re trusting him to follow the rules but if he doesn’t there could be a lot of bloodshed instead.”

 

“What do you mean?” Todd asked quietly.

 

“I mean that he could just decide to kill us all. We don’t have much in the way of safeguards in place. We’re choosing not to involve Andrew yet. Jackie put himself and his people on the line to get us this meeting. Jakob’s keeping us as thin as possible, which is within his rights. Jackie’s allowed his two guards, Blair’s allowed Scott and Jade. He probably thought I’d come alone since Blair didn’t save any of my people but protocol allows me two bodyguards as well.”

 

“I’ll try to restrain myself.”

 

“Do more than try. Don’t say a word. Jakob will know who you are. Ginny will have told him everything she knows. He’ll try to taunt you by going after Blair. Probably not physically, probably emotionally. He’ll talk about her past, about the things she did to try and drive a wedge between you. He’ll play on her memories. He’s going to try and anger someone into acting out. He’ll probably go for you since you’re not one of us. Our people know to not take anything personal, just hold your temper. This is a game, probably the worst. Think of your daughter and the child Blair is carrying and ignore him.”

 

“I told you I’d try. If he touches her though…”

 

“Blair can take care of herself Manning. Let her. Don’t undermine her authority, don’t underestimate her power and we’ll be okay,” Brad turned away from him. “You should go talk to her before she has a chance to sulk for to long.”

 

Todd stared after him for a moment, watching as he walked back over to Jackie, their heads bent back over the sheet of paper he had seen when he first entered. It was actually a map. Probably a map to wherever they were meeting Jakob.

 

With a heavy heart he started up the stairs.  Pausing in the entryway to Starr’s room he waited for his daughter to acknowledge him.

 

“Did mom tell you that they’re sending us to Aunt Viki’s?” she asked bitterly. “I don’t understand why we can’t stay here.”

 

“It’s a long story shorty… but I’m not going with you. Colleen’s going to take you over there and your mom and I’ll be there as soon as we can.”

 

“Why aren’t you being sent to Aunt Viki’s? Can I go with you instead?”

 

“I’m going with your mom,” Todd kneeled in front of his daughter, looking into her face he smiled. “Somebody needs to take care of her.”

 

Starr studied him with narrowed eyes. “Fine, but I’m not spending the night there,” she said dropping her packed backpack on the floor. “You guys can come pick me up when you come back.”

 

“Starr,” he said as patiently as he could.

 

“I’m going downstairs,” Starr edged past him out the door leaving Todd staring at the mural painted on her walls. Shaking his head he sighed. He wasn’t sure which one of them had given Starr the stubborn streak but he wished now that it had been one gene that they hadn’t passed along. Standing back up he closed her door behind him and headed down the hall to the master bedroom.

 

Standing in the doorway to the darkened room he waited for his eyes to adjust and saw Blair sitting on the edge of the bed staring at her hands.

 

“You came to tell me that you changed your mind, right? You’re going to Viki’s with Starr and Colleen?” she asked softly.

 

“No… I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

 

“I can’t have you there Todd,” she whispered as he squatted in front of her. Touching her hands gently he looked up into her face surprised to see the tears that were streaming down it.

 

“What are you afraid of Blair?” he asked gently wiping her tears away with his hand. His fingers lingering on her cheek as he stared up at her.

 

“They expect me to be so strong,” she said in a barely audible voice, he held her shaking hands within his and squeezed them reassuringly. “I’m trying so hard to be the person that I was before. That’s what they expect me to be, that’s what they want me to be… but I don’t think I can be her anymore. I don’t want to be her.”

 

“Babe they only expect you to do your best.”

 

“And what if it isn’t enough? What if Jakob takes one look at me and sees that I’m not a threat anymore, what if he sees that I’ve gone soft?”

 

“Blair…” Todd looked into her eyes, forcing her to meet his. “You’re not soft and you’re going to do your best… just like you always do. Your friends are going to do they’re best and nothing that I see tonight is going to change my mind about you…. I love you,” he whispered so softly that she almost thought he hadn’t spoken. “When this is over we’re going to get married… again. This time I promise to say I do instead of hell no,” Blair smiled weakly at him as he reached out to touch her stomach gently. “And we’re going to raise this baby together. You, me, Starr and the baby are going to be family again.”

 

Blair leaned forward pressing her lips against his forehead she closed her eyes. “I love you… I don’t want you to think of me as a monster when this is over and done with.”

 

“Did you ever think of me as a monster?” Todd asked hesitantly. Half dreading her response to his query. He watched her warily as she hesitated. “I mean when we were getting along, not when we were trying our damndest to destroy each other.”

 

“No… I never thought of you as a monster when we were getting along. When I hated you I did.”

 

“Well I love you right now and nothing that Jakob says tonight is going to change my mind,” he said confidently.

 

“I hope you’re right,” she whispered. “I so hope you’re right.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

Todd was amazed. And he didn’t say that very often. He was also pissed.

 

He was fuming silently in one of three cars heading towards the meet with Jakob. The whole reason that he had wheedled his way into being allowed to accompany them was so he could keep an eye on Blair. He didn’t like what little he’d heard about her time in Central and what she’d remembered about Jakob. He was of the same mind as Scott and Brad… Jakob was not to be trusted.

 

So he had forced them to allow him to come and he was going.

 

Unfortunately he couldn’t figure out how he was supposed to keep an eye on Blair and their unborn child when the car he was riding in did not contain Blair and their unborn baby.

 

They had separated the three groups. Blair and Brad spouting protocol, protocol, protocol. He would be happy when this was all over and done with and the word protocol ceased to be a part of Blair’s vocabulary.

 

Because all of a sudden he hated that word intensely.

 

Protocol meant a time that he hadn’t been involved in. Meant a time where Blair had almost been killed, where she’d been hurt and lost her memories of her childhood.

 

Although he thought that Blair forgetting her time in Central had been a good thing. Especially where he was concerned. The brief glimpses that he’d had of the woman that she would have been did not fill him with warm fuzzy feelings. If he were her he wouldn’t want to remember what had happened. What she’d had to do to survive in a world not of her choosing or making.

 

Hell he didn’t like what she’d went through and he hadn’t even known her then. He’d come close to not having met her at all. He was thankful that Jackie had gotten to her before the bastards that had put her in that hospital had. Even if he had erased her past at least that way she’d had a future. A future with him and their children.

 

Blair had left the penthouse first. Scott and Jade with her. Hopefully keeping her safe while he was not there. He trusted Scott, he seemed to be loyal to Blair and only Blair. Regardless of what Blair wanted. She’d yelled at him so many times to stop calling her boss that they’d taken up a pool to see what the final total would be before he left or Blair killed him, whichever came first.

 

Todd had 136 times. The pot was up over $5000.00 and he planned on winning it. Maybe once this was over he’d take Blair, Starr and the new baby on vacation. He didn’t think they’d ever had one as a family.

 

Jackie had left next, his guards’ trailing along like faithful puppy dogs. Brad had forced them to wait ten minutes after Jackie left before leaving. 

 

He was currently in Brad’s rental car with Brad and Doug. Doug driving, he sat in the passenger seat and wondered if he hadn’t made a mistake in agreeing to be one of Brad’s guards.

 

There seemed to be a lot of protocol to follow. The others all appeared to know what to do, what to say, how to appear… He didn’t have that knowledge stored away in a dark recess of his mind like Blair did. He felt like he was going into this meeting woefully unprepared to protect her… and he didn’t like that feeling.

 

“So…” Todd started shifting in his seat so he could look into the back of the non-descript black car they were in. “What exactly do we need to do?”

 

“Nothing,” Brad said quietly. Doug snickered in the drivers’ seat, Todd shooting a puzzled look between the two men.

 

“Nothing? Than what’s the point of you having guards?” he asked with mild confusion.

 

Brad sighed glancing out the window before looking back at him. “You have no other function other than to look mean… everything else will be handled by Blair and myself.”

 

“Do you really think Blair is up for this? I mean she just got all these memories back and you’re not even letting her digest any of the information that she’s just remembered.”

 

“Blair can handle this Manning… I’m not sure if you can though.”

 

“What does that mean?” Todd asked angrily.

 

“I don’t think you’re really prepared to see Blair in all her glory. To hear the things that Jakob’s going to say to her…”

 

“Hey I heard the story. I can handle whatever he decides to throw our way because regardless of what you think Blair ain’t been no angel in the time that I’ve known her.”

 

“Yes but she wasn’t as mercenary as she would have been either, or you wouldn’t still be among the living.”

 

“I can handle it,” Todd muttered. “I wouldn’t have fought to come along if I thought I was going to put Blair in any sort of danger.”

 

Brad studied him for a moment before turning away. “She’s not going to let you protect her Todd,” he said simply. “Not anymore… and not because she doesn’t want you to protect her,” he said holding his hand up to ward off Todd’s rebuttal. “But because she no longer believes that she’s worth protecting. It’s one of the things she’s going to have to deal with. She’s going to have to deal with the people that we hurt, killed, destroyed and she’s going to have to deal with it alone.”

 

“How did you do it?” Todd asked curious despite himself. If Brad had overcome what they had gone through as children than there was a chance that Blair could as well. Without destroying herself.

 

“Who said I did?” Brad said quietly. He sighed when he saw the dismal expression cross Todd’s face. He knew what the younger man was hoping to hear. He was hoping to hear that in time Blair would forgive herself for her past and allow herself to move forward. He couldn’t lie to him and tell him that would happen.

 

“Blair’s experiences in Central were similar to mine in some ways Todd… but in others they were so vastly different. She not only has to forgive herself for what Central forced her to do, she has to forgive herself for what she sees as betraying Central in the end.”

 

“Is there ever a time where you don’t think about it?”

 

“Sometimes,” Brad admitted meeting Doug’s eyes in the rear view mirror. “When I’m with Sandy I hardly think about it. But then something will trigger a memory and I’ll remember that Jakob kidnapped her, tried to use her to break Blair, to break Andrew and everything comes flooding back.”

 

“So why do we not have cop backup? I would have thought Detective Sturgess would be all over this.”

 

“He would if he knew about it,” Brad smiled thinly. “I don’t like lying to my wife or to her family, but…”

 

“But if they knew what was going down they would want to be there as well,” Todd finished.

 

“Yeah… I thought it would be best if they were kept out of the loop for this initial meeting. Jakob can smell cops from a mile away, he would know if we brought one.”

 

“I thought you all were cops?”

 

“We are, but in Jakob’s eyes we’re still Central as well so it doesn’t count.”

 

“So… what is it with Blair and the three Jack’s?”

 

“What do you mean?” Brad asked in confusion.

 

“Well the three Jack’s,” Todd shrugged, he saw Doug bite his lip to keep from laughing, a snort escaping despite his efforts. “Jackie, Jackson and Jakob… I see a trend there somewhere… I just wanted to know if there were anymore Jack’s hanging around that are going to try and keep her from me?”

 

“No,” Brad shook his head. “I believe those are the only three that Blair knows.”

 

“Good, very, very good.”

 

“We’re here,” Doug said quietly with a grin. Todd turned back around in his seat and as he did so he saw the two cars that Blair and Jackie had left in had already arrived. When theirs was spotted coming down the narrow street he saw Scott come out of the drivers side of the one car. Jarvis hopping out of the other. Todd held his breath as he waited to see Blair finally releasing it in relief as he saw Scott open her door and Blair slide out.

 

“Manning…” Brad put a restraining hand on his shoulder, halting his move to get out of the car. “Remember what I said earlier.”

 

“I’ll keep my mouth shut and look as dangerous as humanly possible,” Todd muttered.

 

“Great,” Brad smiled releasing his hold. “Knew I could count on you,” he said patting him on the shoulder.

 

Todd snorted as he followed Doug’s lead and took up a flanking opposite the one that the other man had assumed. As they walked towards where Blair and Jackie he could see Blair’s eyes focusing on him. They were the eyes that he hated… her old ones that told him she had seen and done things that she didn’t like.

 

“Are we ready?” Brad asked as they approached.

 

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Blair muttered as Brad drew up even with her. He looked into her face, trying to smile in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.

 

“It’s all gonna be okay,” he promised softly. So softly that Todd almost missed it.

 

“Take care of him, don’t…” Blair started her eyes flickering to Todd momentarily.

 

“Jakob won’t touch him,” Brad smiled. Blair studied him for a minute before nodding stiffly.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

*************************************************************************************

 

The warehouse when they entered was cold and dank. The smell of mildew permeated the air and the only light was from several kerosene torches strewn around the main room.

 

Todd frowned as they entered. He had an awful feeling about this. He wondered if the others felt the same level of apprehension as he did. He cast a glance at Doug walking along side him, both men in flanking positions behind Brad and noticed his shoulders were stiff and his eyes busy as they surveyed the room. He wasn’t happy. From the looks of Scott and Jade neither were they or Jackie’s guards.

 

In stark contrast were Brad, Blair and Jackie themselves who all seemed to exude calm demeanors and did not seem disturbed in the least by the dankness of the warehouse or the fact that it’s emptiness signaled that no one was here to meet them.

 

He stayed in his position, opening his mouth to comment on the whereabouts of Jakob he stopped when he caught the warning glance that Doug shot him. He sighed inwardly as he remembered his promise to both Blair and Brad. He had promised to try and keep his mouth shut.

 

That was the stupidest promise he’d ever made.

 

“Blair, Brad,” the voice came from the darkness of shadows. Todd cursed himself even as he slightly jumped. He saw Blair flinch in front of him, saw Brad’s hands clench into fists then both reclaimed their calmness and waited. “I hope I haven’t kept you waiting for to long,” Jakob smiled as he stepped out of the shadows.

 

“I know how excited you both are to get this evening over with and get back to your loved ones.”

 

Jakob grinned thinly as he raked his eyes thoroughly over every member of their party. Todd kept his expression blank as he inwardly squirmed.

 

“Although I can see that Blair has brought a few of her loved ones with her… Mr. Manning, a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet you. I should probably thank you, seeing as how it was your newspaper and your article that led to Ginny to our missing associate. We could never have found her without your assistance.”

 

Todd frowned at him, his teeth grinding as he fought to keep from spitting out his retort.

 

“Cat got your tongue Mr. Manning?” Jakob asked moving forward, he walked past Brad, ignoring him as he studied Todd up close. “Or does Blair have you firmly under her control? She does have a way with men I must admit.”

 

Jakob paced a circle around him, studying him, watching for a sign of weakness.

 

“Blair was one of my best… did she tell you that? She was my left hand to Brad’s right,” Jakob stopped right in front of him. Todd studiously kept his eyes focused on a spot on the far wall. If he made eye contact with the bastard he was going to say something that Blair wouldn’t like. Or punch a fist through the bastards face. He hadn’t decided yet. But regardless if he did what he wanted, what he was visualizing in his mind Blair would be furious, absolutely furious with him.

 

“She was completely loyal to me at one time. If I had told her to kill someone she would have done it. She did do it. If I had told her to fuck one of my associates she would have done it. She may not have liked it, but she would have done it. No questions asked. Of course I didn’t use Blair in that manner, I had other… lesser family members to share with my associates. Blair was special to me. So special in fact that I was going to give her and Brad each other.”

 

“You planned on giving Brad and I to each other? That’s a joke,” Blair hissed. “You planned on drugging us, killing Brad and stealing our child for your own purposes. I heard you Jakob. I heard your sick little plan.”

 

“So what? You and Brad were mine to do with as I wished. My two most loyal, most faithful… So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that you had betrayed me, betrayed our family to cops. That you helped crush our entire livelihood. I was not pleased.”

 

“Are you going to say anything to me now Mr. Manning? Aren’t you going to defend your ex-wife’s honor? I mean I just basically told you that she was a whore. Aren’t you going to me that I’m wrong? Tell me that she would never do something like that. That no man would ever have that much control over her? Aren’t you going to defend her?” Jakob laughed. “Oh that’s right, I’d forgotten… you’re trying to destroy her as much as me and mine were… So what are you doing here as protection? Hmmm? Why are you here?”

 

“Maybe he’s just waiting like the rest of us to see what you’re up to,” Blair snarled.

 

“Oh Blair, is my little princess going to play the hell cat today?” Jakob purred as he walked away from Todd. He stood in front of Blair, reaching out one hand he drew it down her cheek staring at her. She made no visible movement as he caressed her skin gently and Todd once again had to grind his teeth to keep from screaming at him to get his hands off her. “I just love it when you play the hell cat,” he whispered. “Does your Mr. Manning enjoy you as much as I did? You did have such a beautiful body.”

 

“You never had me Jakob,” Blair whispered back, her tone angry as she fought for control. “You only wished you had.”

 

She remembered this game. He wanted an outburst. He didn’t care who it came from. If it came from her all the better. But he would settle for anyone in their party. If one of them raised a hand against him his guards could move to defend and the cease fire would be over. If it had ever been there in the first place.

 

When Blair failed to give him the physical response he wanted he turned his attention to Brad momentarily. He was most disappointed to find Brad still at Blair’s side. With him there as well as the McNaughton’s she was not as alone as he would have liked. It also meant she had some protection in place. Both for herself and her family. Studying Brad he found nothing that he could use. His right hand on the other side. He was not pleased. But soon both Brad and Blair would be back where they belonged

 

Gazing back on Blair he was surprised that she had remained as lovely as she had. He would have to discipline Blair of course. But she would return home just as he wished.

 

While he saw no outward sign that Blair had been anything less than herself these last couple of years, he believed that she had been hiding her true nature from her family. From her lovers. Only time would tell how soft she had become… and if she would need to be replaced in his plans for her and Brad.

  

“Why don’t you tell us what you want Jakob?” Brad asked forcefully. Jakob had kept too much of his attention focused on Blair. They needed to keep his attention wavering between the two of them.

 

“Why Brad I want what I’ve always wanted,” Jakob smirked. “I want all of us to be one great big happy family.”

 

“And how do you propose to accomplish that?” Blair asked quietly her eyes never wavering from his.

 

“Well it’s quite simple really. You both are going to give up the lives you currently lead and are going to come home… where you belong.”

 

“You’re mad,” Blair sputtered in shock as she turned her head to meet Brad’s eyes. They both turned as one back to Jakob’s laughing face.

 

“You should see the looks on both your faces,” he laughed wildly. “I wish I had a camera right now… and no I’m not joking,” his expression turned serious in a flash. “If you turn me down… your families, all of your families will find out exactly how powerful I still am.”

 

“This wasn’t part of our deal,” a silky feminine voice, raised in anger stalked out of the shadows. Brad flinched as he recognized Ginny. His Ginny. The woman that he had once been so crazy about that Blair had been able to use his feelings to get him out of Central. Looking at her now, comparing her to his wife she came up severely lacking.

 

“Ginny,” Jakob scolded. “I told you to wait.”

 

“You told me that I could have Blair’s place if I found her, that I could have Brad back if I did what you wanted.”

 

“You misunderstand me Ginny,” Jakob stalked over to her, gripping her chin in his hand he forced her face up so her eyes met his. “I told you that if you found and killed Blair before the others located her that you could have her position at my left hand. You found her, but unless I’m mistaken and a ghost stands in front of me, you failed to kill her. That’s a failure in my book, our deal is null and void.”

 

“That’s not fair,” Ginny cried, pulling herself away. Tears streamed down her face as the others watched expressionless.

 

“Life’s not fair Ginny… Blair how’s your shoulder?”

 

Blair narrowed her eyes as she watched Ginny and Jakob warily. “It’s fine.”

 

“No pain?”

 

Blair shrugged noncommittally.

 

“Yes you always did have a high threshold for pain… That’s one of your many differences. And that’s why Blair will always be better than you. She can put aside her own feelings, her own emotions, her own pain and move forward… you on the other hand…” Jakob shook his head.

 

“I can’t believe that after everything I’ve done for you you’re going to take that traitorous bitch back!! You’re going to renege on our deal.”

 

“Don’t ever question my judgement,” Jakob snarled at her. “You not even close to the woman that Blair was even back then. She would never have walked away before making sure the job was completed, that’s just one of the many differences between the two of you… Am I right Blair?”

 

Blair paused, her eyes narrowing on Ginny before she focused on Jakob and issued a sharp nod. “Yes.”

 

“If I had given you the same choice as Ginny… If you were her and I had given you the same opportunity, kill her and take her place at my side what would you have done?” Jakob glanced at her. He could see uncertainty, unmaskable in her eyes. She would lie if she thought she would get away with it. Lie to protect the image she had been projecting for years. He couldn’t allow that, he would have no more lies between his people and him. “And be honest princess, your Mr. Manning is going to be quite aware of what you’re capable of eventually… if he isn’t already.”

 

Blair closed her eyes for a millisecond, drawing a deep breath as she debated the wisdom of speaking the truth or speaking a lie. “I would have killed her, I would have shot her and I would have waited to make sure that she was dead before I left.”

 

“And did Ginny do that? Did she wait until you were dead and someone managed to revive you or did she only finish half of her assignment?”
 

“She didn’t complete the job. She shot me and then walked away. Some… people came by to see me, they found me and took me to the hospital. She never waited to make sure I was dead. She was cocky.”

 

“And that Ginny is the difference between you and the people that stand and stood by my side. You’re a failure, even without her memories, without her friends by her side Blair is better than you.” Jakob backed away from her, lifting a hand two burly men came from the shadows. “Get rid of her, if she gives you trouble you know what to do with her.”

 

“This isn’t over Jakob, I still have the Gorsline’s by my side,” Ginny snapped as she was led away.

 

“Not for long Ginny, not for long,” Jakob turned back to Blair and Brad. “Now then… where were we? Ah yes your lives for your families… I’ll of course give you a few days to think about. Such a big decision to make. But think hard, think about what their safety and lives mean to you. You know I’ll not hesitate to eliminate them if you choose wrong… Jackie you know how to get ahold of me when their decision has been made.”

 

With a short laugh Jakob turned on his heel, more men coming from the shadows to follow him, leaving the group standing in the middle of the warehouse staring after him.

 

“Well that was fun,” Todd muttered. “What’s he do for an encore?”

 

**************************************************************************************

 

Todd followed a silent Blair and Brad back into the penthouse. Scott and Jade trailed behind them like faithful puppy dogs. Both Blair and Brad had not uttered a word since leaving the warehouse.

 

Todd had called Viki upon returning to the cars to let Colleen and Nick know that they were returning to the penthouse and to bring Starr back. He thought that Blair might need her.

 

Might need the comfort that only Starr could provide. Because she wouldn’t accept it from anyone else.

 

Blair sank down onto the couch, resting her head in her hands she remained motionless. Brad paced in front of her. His hands rhythmically fisting then relaxing. His eyes distant.

 

“Blair?” Todd kneeled in front of her. Wrapping his hands around her wrists he drew her hands away from her face. Forcing her to look at him. Her eyes were blank and dismissing as she stared down at him.

 

“Babe?” he touched her face softly with a lone fingertip.

 

“I think,” she cleared her throat, her voice cracking as she looked up, her eyes meeting Brad’s before returning to his. “I think you should go to Viki’s and stay there with Starr,” she said quietly.

 

“Why? So you can call Jakob and agree to his little plan and leave us? I don’t think so… we’re going to figure this out. I won’t let you go back to that life.”

 

“You don’t have any choice in the matter.”

 

“Yeah… I do… You’re pregnant with my kid… with our second child. If you think I’m just going to let you walk away from Starr and me and take this child with you you’re nuts.”

 

“Todd,” Blair sighed. She wanted to laugh it was so funny. After all the times that he tried to take Starr away from her, after all the times he had taken her away. He had always used Starr as a weapon to punish her, now he was going to try and use her as a means to keep her. Reaching out she touched his face gently. “You don’t understand. If Brad and I don’t do what he wants Jakob will destroy you. He’ll destroy everything that I care about, everything that I love until I have no choice.”

 

“I’m not easily destroyable,” Todd smiled thinly. “Let him try his best. Your family will stand beside you through whatever.”

 

“Todd…”

 

“Call them. Call Dorian,” Todd said suddenly staring intently at her.

 

“What?! You want me to call Dorian? For what?!” Blair stared at him in confusion.

 

“You trust her don’t you? You trust her advice?”

 

“Well… yeah…”

 

“Call Dorian… Tell her what’s going on. Tell her you need to choose between a man who might at some point and time try to destroy you and a man that will most definitely kill you... you know what she’ll say.”

 

“Todd…”

 

“You know what she’ll say,” he persisted. “She’ll tell you to use the one who might destroy you to fight the one that will kill you… You know that.”

 

“She might just tell me to run.”

 

“No she wouldn’t… she would want you to fight this, to get rid of the threat and then once that’s done get rid of the one who might destroy you. Unfortunately for both of you I’m not going anywhere.”

 

“What do you want from me Todd? If you stay here…” Blair looked away her hands reached down to grip his. “I don’t want you and Starr to get hurt because of me… if you stay you will.”

 

“What about Brad’s family? What about Jade, Scott and the others? Are the two of you going to drag them back into your old lives with you?”

 

“Of course not,” Blair said softly.

 

Scott cleared his throat, arms crossed over his chest he looked over at her. “Wrong Blair,” he said quietly his eyes hooded and blank. “You and Brad go back to Jakob and Central the rest of us go back as well. We’re all in this together and Jakob won’t let us go anymore than he’ll let the two of you go.”

 

“This is mutiny,” Blair said in distress as she jumped up from the couch pacing restlessly. Todd slowly stood pivoting so he faced her.

 

“No… this is us protecting you for a change. Like we’re supposed to do… just like you’ve always protected us,” Scott moved in front of her. Standing there he made no move to touch her just waited for her eyes to meet his. “If you go back to Central… to Jakob it will destroy you. He will destroy you. You know that, we know that, Jakob probably even knows that that’s why he’s pushing for that particular scenario.”

 

“I can handle Jakob.”

 

“I know you can… but you shouldn’t need to. Not after all this time.”

 

“Scott this isn’t the way it’s done,” she said stiffly. “Jakob orders, I follow. I order, you follow.”

 

“Jakob’s not our boss anymore, I don’t follow his orders. But you…” Scott shook his head. “You I would follow through hell and back. We all would. You know that.”

 

Blair looked away finally moving away from him, walking over to the high window she kept her back to them and looked down out over Llanview. Scott pressed on knowing that even though she had walked away she was still listening. She was still hearing him.

 

“You put your life on the line for us time and again. You always put your life on the line for us. You protected us and looked out for us even when we did things you disagreed with. Brad protected us, looked out for us even though we weren’t his. Jakob he never did that for us. He never stuck his neck out for us. He wouldn’t have lifted a hand to help Jackie get his daughter back. He wouldn’t have worked with the cops to make sure we were protected. We all owe you, we could be locked up in prison somewhere… we could be dead. But instead we’ve all had lives. Good lives.”

 

“Scott,” Brad said softly reaching out to grip his shoulder. “Blair’s right about this… this isn’t your fight, not anymore. This is between me, Blair and Jakob.”

 

“You see that’s where you’re wrong Brad. I know that the two of you think you can protect us, that you can keep us insulated from Jakob. But do you really think that if the two of you go back to him that he won’t do everything within his power to get the rest of us back again?” Jade asked smartly moving up beside Scott.

 

“He doesn’t care about you guys,” Brad stated.

 

“No… he doesn’t. But he cares about the two of you, in his own twisted sick way he does. He’ll bring the rest of us back in because we’re your family. You’re my sister Blair. We shared blood… do you remember?” Jade asked holding up her finger she stared at it. “We were twelve years old, the four of us we cut our fingers with that god awful knife that Brad had and we shared blood. I thought for sure that we were going to get gangrene and would have to have the fingers amputated, but we didn’t and that simple act bound the four of us together forever. That blood binds us tighter to each other than we could ever be bound to Jakob.”

 

“Jade…”

 

“Let me finish, because I’ll never probably never get to say this again,” Jade said quietly. “We stayed in Central because of you, because of you and Brad. Scott and I were going to run and take our chances. But we didn’t because we knew we couldn’t convince you guys to leave, that blood that we shared that bound us tighter than our fears that we were going to die in Central. When Central fell and we were out it wasn’t as good as we thought it was going to be because one of us was missing. We’ve spent the last couple of years in hell searching for you. Terrified that we were going to find out you were dead. That one of the families loyal to Jakob had gotten their hands on you. I won’t go back to wondering if you’re still alive, we have you back, the four of us are together again. We love you guys and whatever you decide to do we’ll be right there with you. We’ll follow you back to Central and Jakob if that’s what you decide because we’d follow you guys anywhere.”

 

“Are you finished?” Blair asked softly.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Good,” Blair turned back to the group. Her eyes filled with tears she stared at them… there was only one other way to resolve this. But there was a heavy cost attached to it. “We’re not going back to Central… or Jakob. But there’s only one other way to solve this problem…” she stared at Brad, their eyes locked together as he nodded slowly.

 

“What?” Todd asked looking between them. “If you’ve got an idea you want to share it with the rest of us.”

 

“We need to kill Jakob,” Brad said his voice barely a whisper. “And either Blair or I needs to be the one to do it.”

 

**************************************************************************************

 

Blair stopped in the hallway. Jade and Nick at her side it had been two days since the confrontation with Jakob. Two days since she and Brad had told the others what needed to be done in order for them all to survive.

 

What needed to be done in order for them all to remain free.

 

Todd hadn’t believed her. But then she hadn’t really expected him to.

 

This life was a new one to him. Not something he was used to dealing with so she had handled it like she would if she were explaining it to Starr. Simple short sentences that explained why Jakob needed to die and it needed to be at the hands of either herself or Brad.

 

It had to be either her or Brad. No one else.

 

Todd had thought her joking, only the coldness of her eyes, the stiffness of her demeanor had changed his mind. He had refused to allow her to do it.

 

She had laughed at him.

 

Todd refusing to allow her to do what needed to be done. She didn’t need his permission. They weren’t married, the only thing that bound them together was Starr and the child she carried. Other than that all she had were a few declarations of love when she was in the hospital.

 

“We shouldn’t stand out here,” Jade whispered in agitation. She was on edge. They were all on edge as they waited for the next shoe to drop. They all figured it would be soon.

 

Blair flexed her shoulder. It twinged and she winced slightly before she nodded for them to continue.

 

“Jade why don’t you check the hall and the elevator,” she called ahead. Jade frowned at her. Nick should really be doing things like that but Blair preferred to keep one of her best shots at her back for defense rather than at her front where he would need to shoot around her if something should happen.

 

“Don’t go anywhere,” Jade muttered as she rounded the corner.

 

Nick and Blair exchanged a grin. “She’s in a mood today,” Blair commented as she gnawed on her lower lip.

 

“She just doesn’t think that as one of your seconds that she should need to do things like that,” Nick shrugged. “You could have sent me up and kept her here.”

 

“I prefer to have one of my best shots at my side as opposed to checking safety issues.”

 

“Do you really think that will make a difference,” a voice said quietly. Nick drew his weapon as Blair whirled quickly. “Night, night Nick,”

 

“Peter,” Blair whispered her eyes wide as she moved forward. She kicked up with one leg to knock the gun out of his hand but was instead knocked back. Even with the silencer it sounded like a small explosion ringing in her ears. “No!!” she screamed trying to move to Nick’s side her movements halted as Peter grabbed one arm yanking her abruptly down the hallway. As they turned the corner she heard Jade running back, could only imagine that she had her gun out and then the cry of anguish as she saw Nick on the ground and Blair missing.

 

Blair drew breath to scream again and Peter clamped his hand over her mouth.

 

“Don’t struggle Blair,” he snarled into her ear. “You don’t really want his death to be meaningless do you?”

 

“Still the hellcat I see,” his counterpart said as he drew a needle out of a small bag.

 

Blair glared at him, the third man. The one who had been there the day the other two had tried to rape her. They were both dead, she would really have to make sure this one died this time. Desperately she tried to sink her teeth down on Peter’s fingers. If she could just get him to move his hand she could scream. Get help on its way. Something.

 

“Play nice Blair,” the other man ordered as he pushed the needle into her arm. Blair looked down in alarm struggling within Peter’s arms.

 

She swayed on her feet as the drug quickly took affect. She didn’t even feel it when Peter swung her up in his arms. She didn’t even notice when her keys fell out of her pocket landing unnoticed on the floor. She didn’t hear Jade screaming for her.

 

She heard nothing as darkness claimed her. One thought running through her mind. Todd.

 

**************************************************************************************

 

“We need to do something,” Todd hissed as he paced in front of a stoic Scott and Brad. Both men were unmovable as they sat there waiting. Waited for what he wasn’t sure. But both men’s eyes were hooded and blank as they stared at nothing.

 

Jade sat across from them, head buried in her hands her body visibly trembling. Blood smeared on her shirt and pants from where she had bent over Nick trying to stop the bleeding. Trying to keep him alive until the ambulance arrived.

 

It hadn’t worked. They had pronounced him dead at the scene. He had regained consciousness long enough to utter one word.

 

Peter.

 

There was only one Peter they knew. Only one Peter that would have any interest in abducting Blair and shooting Nick.

 

Peter Gorsline had obviously joined Jakob’s side. Which was no surprise really.

 

“And what pray tell do you propose we do?” Brad muttered as he ran his hands over his face in agitation. “We don’t even know where to begin looking, have no clue where they would even take her.”

 

“Well we need to do something… I can’t just sit here and do nothing while my wife and child are out there being tortured or worse.”

 

“Blair’s not your wife and Jakob won’t hurt her.”

 

“Yeah you keep saying that… he won’t hurt her but he has no qualms about hurting anybody else. Do you really think that Nick wanted to die?”

 

“Nick knew the risks,” Brad moved to his face glaring at Todd. “He’s always known the risks, so does Blair… I think you don’t know the risks.”

 

“I am not going to let her be hurt by him and I’m not going to let her be the one who pulls the trigger,” Todd snarled.

 

“You have no say in the matter. If Blair kills him, Blair kills him. If I kill him, I kill him.”

 

“Then why are you still here? Why aren’t you out there with her? Jakob doesn’t want you there because he’s got something planned for her that doesn’t include you.”

 

“Back off Manning, if I’d known that they would try for one of us this soon I would never have let Blair leave the penthouse this morning.”

 

“And you think you could stop her? Blair goes where she wants to, and she doesn’t listen to anybody if she doesn’t want to,” Todd snorted.

 

Brad’s narrowed eyes stared at him. Without turning his head from Todd’s gaze his chin raised defiantly. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

 

“I’ll go with you,” Scott moved to his feet Doug coming up behind him.

 

“I think I can manage a short jaunt to the men’s room I don’t need help. Stay here, wait for the others,” Brad ordered harshly. Turning on his heel abruptly he stalked away.

 

“He’s in a mood,” Doug muttered softly, Scott nodded in open agreement.

 

“Wouldn’t you be if you knew you were the next target?” Jade looked up, her red and swollen eyes meeting Scott’s. “Jakob’s got Blair, all he needs is Brad and he has what he wants.”

 

Scott’s eyes widened as something struck him, Brad’s demeanor at the hospital had been off. He was to calm, Blair missing, Nick dead. “Fuck me,” he hissed, “he wouldn’t.” Furiously racing down the hallway the others at his heel he pushed the door to the men’s room open, peering under stalls even though the doors were all open. In anger he slammed his fist into the wall. Blood smearing as he stalked out. The others faces stared back at him.

 

Jade’s head shaking in denial, Todd muttering under his breath his expression fierce. Doug nodding as he realized what had gone down even before Scott spoke the words.

 

“He’s gone.”

 

**************************************************************************************

 

Brad sat in his rental car. He’d had it delivered to the hospital by the rental company purposefully when he had received the note that morning. He hadn’t known what it meant at the time but it had sent icy shivers up his spine. And he’d wanted to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

 

He had started calling everyone in right after that. Blair had been his first call. He had used both his cell phone and the phone at Manning’s penthouse.

 

While he had waited for Blair or Nick to pick up he had succeeded in getting everyone else, he’d even succeeded in getting the rental company to deliver the car immediately. Dread had filled him as he listened to the 60^th ring of her phone.

 

Dread and the cruel finger of fear.

 

He hadn’t felt fear in so long that for a moment he didn’t know what it was. Fear had encompassed him as he waited for his ‘baby sister’ to answer her phone. Waited for his best friend to pick up and tell him to quit bothering her. Prayed for a miracle even though he didn’t deserve one.

 

But the phone just continued to ring and the fear continued to grow until he felt like he was drowning in an emotion that he hated.

 

He hated being scared. He had been scared so much as a kid; the life that he had lived had scared him. As an adult he thought he was through with that emotion. But he wasn’t because he was terrified.

 

Because Blair never let her phone ring that long.

 

Ever.

 

She knew better.

 

He’d known that she was gone, that Jakob or somebody else had her long before he’d gotten the frantic call from Jade and his heart had seemingly stopped beating in his chest.

 

He had listened to Manning rant at the hospital about doing something. And a part of him wanted to snarl and ask what Manning proposed to do. But he hadn’t. That fear, the terror that had a firm grip on him wouldn’t let him speak for fear that he would give something away.

 

He didn’t want anyone else to die.

 

He didn’t want to die.

 

But as an adult it seemed he had less control over his life than he’d had when he was a child. Because he was going, on his own, back to a life, back to a man that had almost destroyed him.

 

Had almost destroyed his family.

 

A man that for a time had torn that family to shreds.

 

If you come alone no one else will get hurt.

 

Nick was dead. But he had a slim chance of saving Blair… and himself… and the others.

 

Brad closed his eyes, bowing his head as if in prayer before he opened them a steely glint that had been missing from them before lighting them. Starting the car he pulled out of the garage. Driving seemingly on autopilot. He knew where to go. He knew exactly where Jakob would take Blair.

 

He knew before this night was over that either both he and Blair would be dead at Jakob’s hands.

 

Or Jakob would be dead at theirs.

 

**************************************************************************************

 

Blair feigned sleep as she heard someone moving around in the room. She was lying on a stiff cot; a thin blanket had been tossed haphazardly over her as she slept off the drugs in her system.

 

She had no idea where she was being held, somewhere near the docks she figured. She heard the faint sound of water. Brad would most likely be on his way to wherever they were holding her, walking directly into the trap that Jakob had set.

 

She was not happy about that.

 

For all his talk of fairness Jakob hadn’t even bothered to fake waiting for them to make their decision.

 

“I know you’re awake Blair,” she heard Jakob’s soft voice said humorlessly.

 

“Where are we?” she asked stiffly as she opened her eyes, sitting up with a wince she swung her feet onto the floor. Shaking her head to try and rid it of the fogginess that had settled there she met Jakob’s eyes with her own. Not even bothering to try and hide the anger and hatred that she knew that he could see.

 

“Does it really matter?” Jakob smirked. “Once Brad joins us we won’t be here for very long, we’ll be heading home.”

 

“And where is home exactly? Central is gone in case you’ve forgotten,” Blair snapped.

 

“You should be thanking me… not acting like a spoiled rotten little rich girl,” Jakob snarled leaping to his feet. Pacing in front of her she could see that his normally tightly controlled demeanor was in tatters. She could see the furious anger in the way he held himself, the way he looked at her.

 

“Thank you? For what? For taking me away from my family?” Blair asked in disbelief. He couldn’t really think she would thank him for destroying her life once again.

 

“Did you really think you could be happy as Blair Manning?” Jakob stopped in front of her, glaring at her with icy eyes. “Did you really think that Manning or anyone besides me and Central could fill that place inside you that craves violence, destruction…”

 

“I never craved anything besides a normal life. A life like other people had,” Blair protested pushing herself to her feet. “I wanted a life that didn’t revolve around me killing people at your whims. I won’t go back to that Jakob.

 

“Yes you will,” Jakob gripped her chin in his hand forcing her head to tilt up to look at him. An evilly smug smile on his face she glared at him. “You will because you don’t want you family to suffer. And suffer they will. Do you want me to tell you what I’ll do to your daughter? To your cousins? To your ex?”

 

“You’re bluffing,” Blair stated as she struggled against him. “You won’t lift a hand against them.”

 

“Really?” Jakob arched a brow at her as he stared into her eyes, her struggles ceasing as she saw the truth of what he was speaking reflected in them. “You know I won’t hesitate to destroy anything that stands between me and what is mine.”

 

“I’m not yours… I’m a person Jakob not a belonging.”

 

“You belong to me. Just like Brad. I let the others go because they are of no consequence… but you and Brad,” Jakob softened his voice releasing her chin he stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. “The two of you are mine and you’ll remember that sooner or later,” he promised a hard glint surfacing in his eyes. “You’ll remember that if I have to beat it into you.”

 

**************************************************************************************

 

“Anything?” Todd paced behind Scott as he worked on the computer. After realizing that they had been ditched by Brad, Scott and Jade had raced back to the penthouse, Todd in tow to see if they could pull up his location on Scott’s handy little computer.

 

“Manning go away,” Scott muttered. “If I find something you’ll be one of the first people to know.”

 

“What exactly does this thing do again?” Todd ignored him leaning over his shoulder to study the screen in front of him.

 

“All of us had these little transmitters implanted…”

 

“Everyone except for Blair…” Jade interrupted. “Because she was already gone by the time we thought of it.”

 

Scott growled over his shoulder at her his attention never wavering from the screen. “We didn’t want to misplace anyone else. Each signal is different in some way. If I can find Brad’s signal in the program we might be able to find him and get him and Blair out before one of them has to kill Jakob.”

 

“Maybe we should wait and let them finish the job,” Todd mused.

 

Scott halted his movements as he slowly turned to face Todd.

 

“What?”

 

“Do you really want Blair to kill Jakob? Because I don’t think you’ll get your Blair back again if she does that.”

 

“Hey she shot Holden what makes this any different?”

 

“Because when she shot Max Holden she had no idea of the things her past contained. She was just a woman whose husband had pushed her too far. If she shoots Jakob now, with the knowledge of the things she’s done in the past,” Scott shook his head turning his attention back to the screen. “You won’t get the woman you want back… you’ll get our Blair in her place.”

 

“Then find her before she’s forced to make that decision,” Todd ordered.

 

“I’m trying,” Scott muttered. “Where are you Brad? Where are you?”

 

**************************************************************************************

 

Blair paced the small cell like room. A small cot in one corner, a chair and nothing else. It was a bare bone’s operation and told Blair that they weren’t staying here long before they moved to another location.

 

Linking her hands behind her head she sighed deeply to herself.

 

Jakob had left her alone after his little speech to her. She had wanted to laugh at him. He was trusting that neither she nor Brad would betray him again. He thought that he could control both of them with threats against their family and friends.

 

He either thought he was highly protected or was totally delusional.

 

Blair had opted for the second choice.

 

The Jakob that had run Central with and iron fist would have destroyed her, killed her as soon as she was located for her betrayal in the first place. Regardless of how many years prior it had taken place.

 

This Jakob was not operating with a full deck. If there was any thought that her family was in danger she would protect them with her life. And that didn’t mean going back to Central.

 

That meant eliminating the threat to her family. To her happiness.

 

The door opening drew her attention and when Brad was shoved roughly into the room she almost sobbed with gratitude.

 

Blair studied him as she crossed her arms over her chest. He had a sheepish expression on his face, which told her that he hadn’t anticipated being incarcerated. He’d anticipated walking into Jakob’s new stronghold freely.

 

Obviously that hadn’t happened. He had been in a fight if his face and clothes were any indication.

 

His dress shirt was ripped at the shoulder, his black T-shirt peeking through. A red mark marred his cheek and his hair was mussed slightly.

 

“Take it Jakob didn’t approve of your attire?” Blair smirked eyebrow cocked as she watched him relax in her presence.

 

“He didn’t like that I told him to go to hell, that I was collecting you and that the two of us were going home where we belonged.”

 

“Brad, Brad, Brad,” Blair shook her head tsking softly. “You should know that wherever Jakob is our home now,” she stated sarcastically.

 

Brad laughed as he walked to her, pulling her into a hug he held her tightly. “You okay?”

 

“I’m fine, they gave me something, knocked me out… I’m really tired of being knocked out, I think my New Year’s resolution for next year is going to be to remain conscious as much as possible and to not have any foreign substances injected into my body.”

 

Brad laughed again next to her ear. “The baby?” he asked in a breathy whisper.

 

“Okay… Jakob doesn’t know,” she whispered into his shoulder as she allowed herself to relax in his embrace. “Todd? Starr?”

 

“They’re fine. Jade and Scott will keep an eye on them until I get you back home,” Brad closed his eyes briefly before drawing away. Cupping her face in his hands he stared down at her. His eyes hardened as he saw the bruise on her chin, the shadows under her eyes. “You’re sure Jakob doesn’t know?”

 

“Positive.”

 

“Good… we can work that.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead rocking her back and forth in his arms.

 

Neither moved as they heard the door open behind them. They both knew without a doubt who was standing in the door watching them.

 

“Now isn’t this sweet,” Jakob sneered with a grin. “Brad what would your dear wife say? And Blair,” he shook his head as he watched the couple that has separated and were now glaring at him with identical expressions of hatred.

 

“Gentleman would you escort Ms. Daimler and Mr. Davis to the common area,” he instructed two men standing behind him. “I think it’s time they met the rest of our guests.”

 

**************************************************************************************

 

Brad shrugged off the hand on his shoulder as he and Blair were led from the tiny room that she had been kept in into what looked like a living room.

 

He hadn’t been brought through this way when he had made it to the rendezvous point. He’d been brought into the building through an underground tunnel and now he had the sneaking suspicion that they were not in the building that he had been brought in through.

 

They were somewhere else entirely. Which meant that even if Scott, Jade and the others managed to figure out where he had gone to, they would not be able to determine where he had gone from there.

 

He and Blair were now effectively trapped within Jakob’s grasp.

 

“Why don’t you two have a seat,” Jakob offered as he wandered over to a small hutch and poured himself a drink. Blair and Brad turned to each other with questioning looks before turning their narrowed eyes back to Jakob.

 

As he turned back to them sipping his drink his brows raised at their suspicious looks.

 

“For shame, my two best don’t trust me… I wonder why?” he mused as he moved forward. Stopping in front of them he smiled thinly. “I’m just thinking of your welfare, I don’t want you to be knocked out when you hit the floor after you see our guests. I’m sure you’ll know them.”

 

“Just get on with it Jakob,” Blair muttered.

 

“My dear Blair you never did have any patience did you?” Jakob smirked. “Well I thought we would talk first, it’s been years after all. But since you’re in such a hurry to meet the others…” he waved a hand at one of his guards and he moved away to open another door.

 

Blair and Brad crossed their arms over their chests, their faces schooled into identical pictures of disinterest as they waited for whatever bombshell Jakob was getting ready to drop in their laps. They could both tell from the way his eyes remained locked on them instead of the approaching trio that he was awaiting their reaction.

 

He was not disappointed. Two sets of eyes immediately went to the one still under guard. That would be the one they would work with if there were any chance at escape. The woman’s arm was held tightly in the grasp of her guard. Her face tearstained she was not there by her choice but rather the choice had been made for her. Brad didn’t recognize her but Blair did and her eyes widened in shock as she went to move forward to comfort. Only being stopped when Brad placed a restraining hand on her shoulder.

 

“Kelly,” she uttered softly her eyes meeting those of her terrified cousin.

 

With a questioning look up at his hooded angry eyes she turned to study the other.

 

The man under no guard.

 

The one staring at her and Brad with a blank face and her jaw dropped. She could feel Brad shaking in anger next to her. Could tell that he was close to losing all semblance of control and annihilating the man who had dared to betray them.

 

The man she had once loved.

 

“Oh my god,” she whispered.

 

**************************************************************************************

 

Todd opened the door to the penthouse to reveal a white-faced Sandy Davis. Purse clutched tightly in her hands she ignored Todd as she peered over his shoulder into the penthouse. Todd sighed as he allowed her to pass him.

 

“When did my home turn into Grand fucking Central Station?” he growled as he slammed the door shut in Kevin Buchanan’s face. He groaned as he heard the rapid fire knocking and whirled back and around ripping the door open.

 

“Take the hint,” he ordered. “Go away!”

 

“Not likely,” Kevin shoved past him. “Where’s Kelly?”

 

“Do you see her here?” Todd said sarcastically waving a hand at the rooms occupants. “Besides which why would the little flea be here. Now go away.”

 

“I’m not going anywhere until I see Kelly,” Kevin said firmly as he flopped down on the couch next to Jade. Arms crossed over his chest he glared up at Todd who only growled in frustration at him.

 

“Can I have everyone’s attention now,” Sandy murmured as she tossed her purse onto the desk and paced in front of Scott.

 

“What are you doing here Sandy? I thought you were going to stay at the hotel until we figured out what was going on?” he asked his gaze boring into her uncomfortably.

 

“We may have more problems then just Brad and Blair missing…” Sandy stated running her fingers through her hair in agitation.

 

“Wait a minute… Blair is missing?” Kevin asked leaning forward in interest.

 

He was ignored as the group focused their attention on Sandy.

 

“What’s going on Sandy?” Jade asked pushing herself to her feet. Stalking forward until she was standing in front of the woman that she had considered a sister-in-law for years. “Why are you here?”

 

“Jackson’s missing,” Sandy whispered. Her eyes meeting Jade’s horrified ones as she nodded in confirmation to the unspoken question in those eyes. “He left me a note, it’s in my purse. He…” her voice broke as tears fell unheeded from her eyes, “he told me to apologize to you. To tell you that he was sorry.”

 

“You’re not saying…” Scott drawled off as his eyes widened at the implications of Jackson’s betrayal. He had been privy to their most personal secrets. To all the information, scoops, leads that they had managed to muster on Blair as they had searched for her.

 

“He’s been working with Jakob. He’s the one who gave her up… not Ginny.”

 

**************************************************************************************

 

“You fucking bastard!” Brad growled angrily. He moved swiftly forward, his fist connecting solidly with Jackson’s jaw. Kelly screamed as her guard pulled her back and out of the fight, Jackson landed hard on the carpeted floor. He made no moved to get up.

 

Instead he laid there, no remorse visible in his eyes as he stared up at the man that had been part of his family for over ten years.

 

The man that his sister had loved for over half her life. The man he had betrayed.

 

“Brad!” Blair screamed. “Brad stop it!” she yanked on his arm trying to pull him back. Brad standing stiffly over Jackson’s still form, hands fisted at his side he tried to shrug her off.

 

“Get up!” he ordered.

 

“Brad stop… he’s not worth it,” Blair said soothingly, pulling hard on his arm she guided him back across the room. Both watching as Jackson finally moved wiping a hand across his face his hand shook as it showed red. Brad had drawn blood.

 

“I’ll kill you myself,” Brad stated ominously.

 

Jakob’s clapping interrupted the hostility in the room.

 

“Jackson I don’t believe your brother-in-law trusts you any longer.”

 

Jackson glanced over at him as he pushed himself back to his feet. His expression becoming blank as he stared at Blair and Brad with unseeing eyes.

 

“You bastard,” Brad seethed, his eyes shooting daggers as he peeled Blair’s hand off his arm. “We trusted you.”

 

“Brad,” Blair warned as she crossed her arms over her chest again turning her attention back to Jakob. “Do you want to tell me why my cousin is here?”

 

“Oh… this pretty young lady?” Jakob smirked as he walked over to Kelly, with a quick nod of his head the guard released his hold stepping away. Jakob stroked her cheek with his fingers gently, his smile growing as he felt Kelly tremble beneath the movements of his hands. Her eyes moved frantically between Blair and Jakob.

 

She had no clue as to what was going on. She hated feeling like she was missing part of the story.

 

She didn’t know who the man standing next to Blair was.

 

She didn’t know who the man, Jackson, who had had been led into this room with her was.

 

She didn’t know who the creep who was now touching her freely was.

 

But Blair seemed to know all of them.

 

She didn’t know how this had happened. When she’d received the phone call from Viki telling her that Blair had been shot at the mansion and was in the hospital she had left a note for Kevin and hopped the first plane to Llanview. For all the bad blood between them they were still family.

 

She had called Cassie and Dorian, both would be enroute to Llanview as soon as possible.

 

She had been making the quick walk from the terminal to baggage claim when two men with guns had latched onto her arms. She had been so surprised that she hadn’t even managed a squeak of protest before she was being dragged away.

 

She had managed to keep her calm façade up when confronted with others. She had been held alone for two hours. Alone in a bare room with a little cot where she had cried for almost that entire time. She hoped that anyone watching her had got a good show because she was through crying. Now was the time for action. She had to only hope that Blair and the man standing next to her had some sort of plan for that.

 

“Do you mind?” she snarled yanking her face out of his grasp.

 

“Kelly…” Blair whispered in warning shaking her head slightly.

 

“Well she’s a firecracker just like you,” Jakob grinned wildly. “Must run in the family gene pool.”

 

“Why is she here?” Blair asked glaring at him.

 

“She’s here to keep you in line and make sure that the two of you do what you’re supposed to do… I might let her go… eventually,” Jakob turned away from Kelly his attention fixating on Jackson.

 

“And him?” Brad asked angrily.

  

“Jackson…” Jakob stood behind Jackson. His hand on Jackson’s shoulder he squeezed it tightly, Jackson wincing from the pain before his face became blank again. “Jackson has been most helpful,” he smirked at them. “Most, most helpful…” walking away he moved back to his position in front of Blair and Brad. “Without him I would never have found you. Ginny was not very forthcoming with your whereabouts, although I never expected her to be… she wanted your place, she didn’t want you found so you could retake it yourself.”

 

“What did you give him to betray us?” Blair asked bitterly her eyes locked on Jakob’s.

 

“Why my dear I didn’t give him anything…” Jakob grinned, his smiled fading when he saw Blair’s eyebrows arch in query and he sighed deeply. “Well I might have promised him that if we found you first that he might possible have a chance to win you from Brad… Of course he failed in that regard so he will not get that opportunity. He’s lucky I’m letting him live.”

 

“I’m not an object for you to give away.”

 

“Now Blair,” Jakob gripped her hand in his face again. “We’ve had this discussion already. You are mine to do with as I please. It would be best if you remembered that.”

 

Releasing her face with a gentle caress, her moved behind them. An arm around each of their shoulders the three stared at Jackson.

 

“Now my pets… what should we do with him?”

 

**************************************************************************************

 

Sandy,

 

As you read this I’ll be gone. I don’t foresee ever being able to return home again. You see for all your talk of me being the intelligent one I’ve gone and done something stupid. I’ve done something that will make dad ashamed of me, will drive yet another wedge between the two of us and will destroy whatever friendships I thought I had in place with Brad and the others.

 

I know everyone is blaming Ginny for Jakob’s presence in Pennsylvania. And she is partially to blame. If she hadn’t found Blair I would never have had to tip my hand. Never had to give Jakob the information that he requested. But she did and I had to.

 

This is all my fault. I thought I could protect Blair. Thought I could protect the only woman that I’ve ever loved. I was so unbelievably wrong. I thought that I could get close to Jakob and that the only repercussion would be finding her and bringing her home with me. I never thought that Jakob would escape after I gave him my information. I never thought that he would come to Llanview and expect Blair and Brad to rejoin him in Central.

 

I never thought that Blair would be in love and pregnant with another mans child and would want nothing to do with me. She’s all I’ve ever wanted.

 

I wanted dad to be proud of me for once. Christ as old as I am I shouldn’t care that he considers Brad more his son than me. But I do and that’s one of the other reasons that I made the stupidest decision that I’ve ever made. I’m sorry.

 

I’m such an idiot, I never thought far enough ahead to plan for all contingencies. You see I honestly never thought that anyone besides me would ever find Blair. I thought her dead or worse. So I thought it no harm to join Jakob’s side. I wanted to see what type of life she and the others led. I wanted to know what they went through. I wish now that I didn’t know what I do. I wish I was the ignorant little seventeen year old who was just madly in love with the most beautiful, aloof girl I had ever seen.

 

I’ve been ordered in. They have Blair, I know they killed Nick to get her. And I know that Brad has been lured in. I planted the note myself on Jakob’s orders.

 

I’ll try to help them escape. I’ll try to do whatever I can to get them out of this because as much as they went through in Central they don’t need this again. But I don’t think they’ll take my help. A betrayal is a betrayal regardless of the intentions behind it. If Jakob doesn’t kill me then one of them will be the ones that pull the final trigger and I’m okay with that.

 

I love you, tell dad I’m sorry.

Jackson.

 

Sandy clutched the note in her hand. She was trying to ignore the clawing in her stomach. The ache that told her in no uncertain terms that her brother had betrayed her. Had betrayed their family. All to get Blair back. To know the agonizing loneliness that she and the others had felt as children.

 

“Anything?” Todd muttered from where he was leaning over Scott’s shoulder.

 

The pace had picked up significantly since her arrival. From the glares being shot at her by Manning he obviously held her responsible for her brothers actions.

 

“Hold on,” Scott murmured as he studied the screen in front of him. A small smile beginning to form on his lips he jumped up from his chair. “Got them,” he grabbed his coat and headed for the door.

 

“About damn time,” Todd snarled as he followed him, Jade and the others right behind them. Sandy stayed where she was. Rooted to the spot she had been standing in.

 

“Sandy are you coming?” Scott turned from the door, his eyes meeting hers he noted the bleakness, the sorrow. She, like Manning, could stand to lose everything if they weren’t in time.

 

“Yeah,” Sandy stared down at the paper in her hand, crumpling it she walked towards them. “Yeah I’m coming,” she whispered as she tossed the ball on Todd’s desk. “I just hope we’re in time.”

 

“We will be,” Jade said thickly, Sandy could hear the unshed tears there. The pain. “We have to be,” she whispered as she pulled the door shut behind them.

 

**************************************************************************************

 

“So what should we do with him?” Jakob repeated his arms looped over Blair and Brad’s shoulders.

 

Three sets of eyes trained on Jackson.

 

Two sets filled with sorrow and darkness from the betrayal of one they had trusted. Brad remembered feeling like this once before. When Blair had handed him over to the cops to save him from going down with Central. He had hated her then like he hated Jackson right now. He had forgiven her when he had found out why she did what she did. Would Jackson have as good an excuse? Was he trying to save them or kill them?

 

The other set was filled with glee. How the mighty had fallen. Now they would both see that they could trust no one but him.

 

Blair pulled away from Jakob first. Glancing up at the man that once represented the whole world to her she was infinitely surprised by how old he looked. He had seemed so young years ago.

 

Prison and time had not been kind to Jakob.

 

Brad pulled away next, Jakob’s arms crossing over his chest as his eyes flickered between his two favored ‘children’.

 

Blair kept her face trained in an expression of disinterest as she studied Jackson. There was something off with the way he was acting. She couldn’t put her finger on it and she hoped she figured it out before Brad or Jakob just went ahead and killed him. Peering at Brad from the corner of her eye she watched him roll on the balls of his feet. She knew he wanted to pace but would not give Jakob the satisfaction of that. His posture screamed his hostility though.

 

Brad was pissed.

 

He glared at Jackson with barely concealed hatred. He stood a few feet away from him, barely leashing the anger that demanded that he strike down the man who had betrayed them. His eyes shot daggers a low snarl building in his throat over time. He wanted to pounce. He wanted to use every skill that he had ever learned and beat down the man that had been one of his best friends and allies once upon a time.

 

“Can we have a moment Jakob?” Blair asked quietly her eyes’ narrowing as Jackson’s met hers finally. The blankness that she kept seeing there disturbed her. It was like the body was there but the mind had decided to take a quick vacation.

 

“Of course my dear,” Jakob smiled thinly at her. “You have only to ask… Don’t hurt him to badly children, he could still be of use to us later,” winking at them he pressed a kiss to Blair’s forehead. Blair barely managing to conceal the shudder that ran through her body at his touch. Walking away he waved for his guards to follow him. Leaving Blair and Brad alone in the room with Kelly and Jackson.

 

With the doors closing Brad leapt into action flying across the room he had Jackson’s neck firmly clenched with his hands as he pressed him against the wall within seconds.

 

“Why?” he snarled tightening his grip just a fraction. Jackson gasped for air but did not raise his hands to ward off his angry brother-in-law. Instead he met the fury filled eyes with calm ones. His eyes drifted over Brad’s shoulder to where Blair was slowly walking over to them. She stopped momentarily to hug her cousin before continuing on. Kelly stood off to the side looking on in confusion. “Don’t look at her,” Brad growled squeezing. “You don’t ever have the right to look at her again after this.”

 

“I was trying to help,” Jackson gasped out, wincing as the pressure against his throat increased. Undaunted he stared at Brad. “I thought… I could do something… to help,” he wheezed.

 

“Help?! Help?!” Brad laughed harshly relaxing his grasp as he pressed him against the wall. “How the hell was giving us up supposed to help us? You knew what our lives were like in Central… you knew and you still betrayed us to him.”

 

“I knew Jakob still had people looking for Blair,” Jackson closed his eyes as he tried to calm the nausea rising in his throat, trying to draw oxygen into his lungs. Brad was going to be the one, somehow he had thought it would be Jakob. Jakob who would deliver that final crushing death blow. “I thought if I was on the inside… that I would be able to warn you when they found her… I wanted you guys to get there first. I knew… that Jakob couldn’t resist that irony that was my agreement. The son of the cop who helped Blair destroy Central… he thought it was priceless. He never questioned my motives... I was just trying to help.”

 

“You don’t think we didn’t have that angle covered?” Brad asked angrily. “You don’t think we would have taken every precaution necessary to make sure that if anyone got to Blair first it would have been one of our own people?”

 

“And yet look,” Jackson whispered. “Ginny still got there first… Ginny managed to succeed where everyone else failed.”

 

“Brad,” Blair said softly lying on hand on his arm her entire being focused on the angry presence of her ‘big brother’.

 

“Don’t even tell me you believe him,” Brad stated coldly.

 

“It doesn’t matter what I believe. What matters is that we have more important things to worry about…”

 

“She’s right,” Jackson said quietly.

 

“Don’t agree with me,” Blair glared at him. “I’m not on your side in this. When we get out of this you’ll pay, way one or another you’ll pay.”

 

“I was just trying to help,” Jackson muttered again as Brad finally released his grip. Jackson massaged his throat as he sagged against the wall his eyes focused entirely on the two in front of him.

 

“We could really do without your form of help right now,” Brad shot back. “What’s your plan?”

 

“I don’t know yet, we need to do something quick though… I somehow don’t think that we’ll be staying in Llanview for much longer. There’s to much danger in someone finding us.”

 

“Well there’s one thing that Jakob doesn’t know about,” Jackson offered weakly from his position on the wall. Two sets of eyes glared at him. “Well the… well,” he stammered as he wished there was a place in the wall he could crawl into.

 

“Spit it out,” Brad ordered harshly.

 

“The transmitters,” Jackson muttered under his breath. “He doesn’t know about them.”

 

“Well good,” Brad nodded as he began pacing again. “At least you didn’t betray us totally.”

 

“I didn’t betray you in the first place… I was trying to…” Jackson wavered off as Brad growled at him.

 

“Help… Yes we heard you the first time.”

 

“Transmitters? What transmitters? And why don’t I have one?” Blair crossed her arms over her chest as she studied her partner in crime.

 

“It’s a long story but it kept us from losing anyone else after you,” Brad shook his head. “Good, good. That means help will be on the way once they trace the signal.”

 

“Blair?” Kelly started as she moved across the room to stand next to her cousin. “What the hell is going on?”

 

“It’s a long story Kelly and we really don’t have time right now,” Blair frowned at her. “Why were you coming to Llanview anyway?”

 

“I was worried,” Kelly murmured defensively running a hand through her hair. “I got a call from Viki saying that you’d been shot and were in the hospital. I knew Todd was going to be no help, if he was even around. So I called Aunt Dorian and Cassie and came to help out… Obviously I didn’t make it.”

 

They stiffened as they heard the door open behind them.

 

Jakob had returned already, Kelly frowned, Jackson’s face resumed its impassive countenance and Blair and Brad turned in unison to face the man standing there.

 

“So my pets,” Jakob grinned. “What have we decided to do?”

 

**************************************************************************************

 

“My god! Can this car go any slower? I don’t think every Sunday driver in America has passed us yet,” Todd yelled sarcastically from the backseat. Scott was driving, Jade in the passenger seat on the computer trying to do a better lock on the signal that he had been told was emanating from Brad’s transmitter. He was really going to have to line those up for the members of his family.

 

Between Blair’s disappearances and Starr’s running away episodes it would be nice to just be able to go wherever they were and retrieve them.

 

“I’m going to kill him… I swear to god I’m going to kill him,” Scott muttered under his breath to Jade who snorted at him as she stared at the screen in front of her. “We’re moving as fast as possible Manning… we’ll be there in under twenty minutes,” Scott said a bit louder so Manning could hear him over the steady beeping of the signal that they hoped was Brad. “Still clear?” he glanced over at Jade.

 

“Still clear,” she grinned wryly at him. “Never thought we were ever going to get the opportunity to use this software,” she winked at him. “Nice to know it works though.”

 

“Wait a minute… You mean you’ve never tested these transmitter things?” Sandy asked suspiciously.

 

“No,” Jade shook her head as she turned her attention back to the screen in front of her.

 

“And why haven’t we tested the transmitters that we’re now running after?”

 

“Because in order to test them we would have had to lose someone and with the difficulty we’d had finding Blair up to that point no one wanted to volunteer to get lost so we could test them out.”

 

“Oh… So we could be on a wild goose chase then.”

 

“Well yeah… but the software is working exactly the way its supposed to…the only person we’re missing is Brad… so…” Jade shrugged, “…it should be Brad.”

 

“Or a microwave oven,” Todd muttered.

 

**************************************************************************************

 

Blair focused on Jakob’s smirking face and felt her heart drop through the floor. The look on his face. She remembered that look. That was the look he got right before he sent one of his teams out on assignment.

 

He was expecting them to have decided to kill Jackson. To draw weapons and shoot him in cold blood.

 

If they had been themselves. If they had been the teen-agers that they once were she knew that at least she would have had no qualms about doing that.

 

But she wasn’t that girl anymore. She was a grown woman with children to think about, and ex-husband to torment. A family that loved her if Kelly’s rushing to her side was any indication. If she made any decision it would not be killing one of the good things about her childhood.

 

“Well?” Jakob asked spreading his hands in front of him he waited for one of them to respond.

 

“What do you want us to say Jakob?” Brad muttered softly dragging his fingers through his hair. He ignored Blair standing next to him, never even acknowledging that she was still there. He knew that if he gave her even a milli-second of his attention that Jakob would realize in a moment that they weren’t playing with him and were in fact playing against him.

 

Of course if Jakob had still been even half the man, half the leader that he had been when they were kids he would have realized that already. And he would have promptly eliminated them from his scenario.

 

This Jakob was obsessed with what he thought should have been.

 

“Well I want you and Blair to tell me that you have decided to remove the cops son from our presence so we can move onto the next stage of our plans,” Jakob stated simply. The expression on his face implying that he had thought that a perfectly reasonable thought.

 

“And why would we want to do that?” Blair asked quietly as she and Brad both moved forward.

 

No looks exchanged between them, they instinctively moved into similar positions on either side of their former leader. The leader that even now looked between them with confusion etched on his features.

 

“Well because he betrayed you,” his brow furrowed as he studied them. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jackson take Kelly by the arm and move her slightly away. “I would think you would want him punished for that transgression.”

 

“You want to talk betrayal?” Blair stared up at him a smirk forming on her lips. “Why would you even want me back in Central… after all I went to great lengths to ensure that Central would fall in the first place.”

 

“I’ve long since forgiven you for that,” Jakob frowned at her.

 

“Reeeaally? So having me kidnapped, institutionalized and reprogrammed to kill my friends and family that was what…? Your idea of forgiveness?”

 

“I had to do something to make you see the error of your ways,” Jakob smiled evilly at her, reaching a hand out he traced a finger down her cheek. “After all you and Brad were two of my post prized possessions, I couldn’t very well just let you go.”

 

“We’re not possessions,” Brad interjected. “We’re people, human beings that have choices in what happens in their lives.”

 

“You ceased to be anything but my belongings when I brought you into my world,” Jakob murmured his gaze never moving from Blair’s face. “You will always belong to me, you will always belong to Central.”

 

“See that’s where you’re wrong,” Brad stepped back, Jakob looked over at him with an indifferent expression. His gaze only changing when he saw that he was moving towards one of his guards. When he went to move to intercept Brad Blair grabbed his arm. Gripping his wrist in her tight grasp she stared at him.

 

“Sebastian,” Jakob tried to pull his arm from Blair’s grasp. Peeling at her fingers uselessly he narrowed his eyes at her before turning to his unresponsive guard. His other guards stood by the door watching with interest but never moving to intercede on his behalf.

 

“You see Jackson,” Brad said quietly to his brother-in-law as he held out his hand to Sebastian, his expression never wavering as Sebastian removed his gun from his holster and laid it in Brad’s hand, their eyes meeting in silent acknowledgement. “We had everything under control.”

 

Sebastian stepped back into the shadows already going for his second gun when Jakob’s growl of outrage erupted. Blair staggered back as he ripped his arm from her grasp, she quickly regained her footing and leaving Brad to deal with Jakob she turned her attention to the two guards that were now heading to assist their boss.

 

“Now boys,” she said calmly as she swung out a fist, connecting solidly with the first guards jaw he dropped to the floor stupefied. This allowed her to take the second by surprise and as she swept his feet out from under him she grinned. Sprawled out on his back he stared at her, surprise etched on his features as he moved to get to his feet. “Let’s play nice… it’s been a while,” she grinned gesturing for him to rise. It had been a long, long time since she had been in a good fight.

 

As Blair Daimler Buchanan Manning Cramer Holden she had been so intent on the being the semi-good person that wanted to belong somewhere, to someone that she hadn’t given into some of her baser instincts. The person that wanted to have a family that she could call her own didn’t give into the violent side of her nature. 

 

Well except for those two times… once with Luna, once with Tea… she hadn’t. And if she was honest with herself looking back on those times now she should have realized that something was amiss. It had felt good, lashing out at someone. It had felt liberating in a way that she had never before felt.

 

Of course both of those incidents had high costs. But now that her life was back on track she was not going to let Jakob take it away from her. So she welcomed the violence, that fury that had been such an integral part of her childhood, she welcomed it home and used it. 

 

Because as much as she liked the woman that she’d become, as Blair Daimler she had skills and motives that had nothing to do with belonging and everything to do with surviving. And right now she needed to survive.

 

Rising slowly the guard and she circled. Quick feints here, a kick there. Neither making contact although both were itching to. Over the shoulder of her opponent she could see Jakob advancing on Brad. Brad had the gun trained on him but had not yet pulled the trigger.

 

“You want to play, we’ll play,” the guard snarled at her as he jumped for her. She dodged to the side, a fist swinging out as she moved away. She could see the shock on Kelly’s face as she moved back into the light of the room to watch.

 

“You can’t win this,” Jakob said quietly as he and Brad faced off.

 

“I think we already have,” Brad smirked.

 

“As long as I’m living you know you’ll never be free… she knows that too… In order to walk out of here free of Central one of you will have to kill me. Are you prepared to do that?”

 

“Are you prepared to die?”

 

“I’ve always been prepared, you don’t live the life I did, run the business I did and not expect to have a short life… I’ve lived longer than I ever intended to in the first place.”

 

“Well lets end this then,” Brad shrugged as he raised the gun in his hand and pointed it. “I think it’s been long enough.”

 

“That it has,” Jakob whispered a smile forming on his lips as he watched Brad’s fingers, his cold eyes… and moved.

 

Jakob had never been a fair fighter. A street fighter he played and fought dirty and though he had taught his people that dirty play Brad had been out of the game for a while. So when he grabbed at Brad’s arm his lieutenant, his second was mildly stunned and his reaction time slowed as the two men struggled for the gun.

 

Jackson made to move forward to help. To late he saw Jakob’s fist fly up and connect solidly with Brad’s jaw, as his movements halted he saw Jakob draw a second punch Brad attempting to keep a firm grip on the gun even as he staggered back stunned. A third jab found Brad crumpled to the ground and Jakob standing the gun now firmly situated in his hand.

 

Kneeling by his fallen lieutenant he patted Brad on the head and then turned to face his second. Blair was still fighting with the only one of his guards still standing. Both of their movements quick and precise they were vicious in their attacks against each other. His guard did not pull his punches, did not soften his blows just because he was fighting a woman. He knew who Blair was, he knew what training she had, he knew what she was capable of doing to him if she managed to close on him.

 

Jakob raised his recently acquired gun, Sebastian moving forward with a growl he was backhanded by Jakob as he focused all his attention on his wayward second.

 

Kelly’s whimper caught Blair’s attention and as she ducked and spun out of the way of a swing she hazarded a quick glance around the room and finally noticed Jakob standing with a gun in his hand across the room from her. Brad lay on the ground at his feet, Sebastian crumpled to the wall.

 

Her eyes widened as she landed a fist into her attackers gut, she tried to maneuver them around, tried to put her opponent between herself and Jakob to no avail.

 

When she twisted again she waited for the inevitable bullet, for the pain of being shot again. She knew that Jakob would have no qualms about shooting her. She was a liability to him now.

 

And then time slowed down, she stopped moving as she took a blow to the back, falling to her knees she faced Jakob her eyes wide and open as she stared at him. Although she was unprepared for the smirk that creased his face she was prepared for the gun leveling on her. She could hear Kelly screaming and it seemed as if the sound was coming from miles away. The ringing in her ears drowned out everything else in the room.

 

I’m sorry Todd, she whispered to herself as she waited for Jakob’s judgement to fall.

 

When the bullet fired, the bang from the gun rocketing through the room she waited patiently and was unprepared to feel Jackson slamming into her. To feel his body jerk against hers as the bullet meant to end her life instead entered Jackson’s body. Her shocked eyes met Jackson’s and in that moment a realm of understanding passed between them.

 

It took her only a moment to understand, only a moment to twist her body to the guard behind her and remove his gun. Half a second longer to aim it at Jakob, sighting it she could see him on the other side of the room doing the same.

 

Brad’s groan from the floor distracted Jakob for a split second, a half a second longer than she needed when she pulled the trigger.

 

The shock on his face was priceless. She wished she’d had a camera to commemorate the event. She would never see shock like that again. She held the gun trained on him as he pressed hands to the wound in his chest. Staring at the blood on his hands he held them wordlessly up and his gaze met hers. When he crumpled slowly to his knees than to the ground she finally lowered the gun.

 

“Blair,” Jackson whispered, lying on the ground he had managed to roll onto his back.

 

“Jackson,” she whispered she moved near him, hovering over him as she touched the wound in his stomach. The blood soaking through his shirt, staining her hands. “Don’t move.”

 

“I’ll call an ambulance,” Blair looked up in shock and saw Sebastian and Brad on the other side of him. She had never even seen them move from across the room. She nodded at him and Sebastian moved away pulling a cell from his coat pocket.

 

“Blair,” Jackson murmured.

 

“Don’t move,” she ordered gently as she took one of his hands in hers. “Helps on the way.”

 

“I’m sorry… I know you guys don’t believe me… but…”

 

“Shhh,” she said quietly. “It’s going to be okay,” her eyes met Brad’s and she cringed at the almost imperceptible shake of his head. There was no hope, no hope at all.

 

“Tell Sandy that she was right… about it all… I should have listened to her, I should have let it go,” Jackson coughed, blood staining his lips as his eyes closed momentarily struggling to draw oxygen into his lungs. “I just loved you so much, I wanted things to be the way they were.”

 

“Jackson…”

 

“I know you love him…”

 

Blair leaned forward pressing her lips gently to his forehead she let tears flow freely down her face as she gently laid her forehead against his. If there was ever a time that called for tears this was it.

 

“I know he loves you too… At my house there’s a box… it has some stuff from school… yearbooks, pictures… I know you didn’t have that… I’d been saving it… for you.”

 

“Thank you,” she breathed against his forehead, eyes closed she sobbed quietly. She didn’t love him anymore, but once upon a time she had and she wept now for the loss of those childhood dreams.

 

The loss of all she had worked for.

 

When Jackson went to move, to sit up Brad pressed a hand to his chest holding him to the floor. “Don’t move,” he said quietly one hand resting on Jackson’s chest, one hand resting on Blair’s back.

 

“I am sorry… I never meant…” Jackson wavered off as he started coughing again.

 

“I know,” Brad said quietly. “I know, it’s not important now anyway… its over with.”

 

“Will you tell my dad?” Jackson asked in a small voice.

 

Brad stared down at him, the frightened eyes that matched his wife’s exactly and shook his head. “No… I’ll tell him it was an accident, a trick on Jakob’s part.”

 

“You’d lie for me?”

 

“I’d lie for you,” Brad confirmed. “I’d lie to protect Sandy from this.”

 

“I’m tired,” Jackson said suddenly his eyes drooping as he raised an arm to Blair’s head. Blair drew her head away as he lifted a hand to her cheek. “So pretty,” he said absently.

 

“Jackson?” Blair whispered in alarm, her eyes meeting Brad’s as he started backing away. “Jackson?” she looked back down at him, at his closed eyes, peaceful face and her tears fell faster. “Jackson?” she pressed a soft kiss to his lips as she sobbed.

 

She felt Brad move beside her, taking Jackson’s arm in his hands he felt for a pulse, closing his eyes he pushed himself to his feet. Reaching a hand out to Blair she ignored him, instead she wrapped her arms around the man lying still on the floor. Brad clenched his hand in a fist at his side and stared at them.

 

“Is he?” Kelly moved silently up behind him, Sebastian gripping the phone tightly in his hand as he shook his head in denial.

 

“He’s gone,” Brad said quietly. “He’s dead.”

 

**************************************************************************************

 

One Year Later:

 

Blair surveyed the empty room.

 

Bed exactly where she remembered it. Chair in the corner of the room. Dresser with the drawers still slightly open.

 

Closet door open, empty hangers on the bar.

 

The brick that she had removed right before being grabbed still slightly uneven in the wall.

 

It was eerie how the room hadn’t changed as opposed to her life, which had taken a complete 180.

 

It had taken her a year to be able to walk into this room. Brad had bought the building a few months after Central had fallen. He had left every room exactly as its previous occupants had left them So that people, like her could come back and say goodbye.

 

It had taken her a year to be able to say good bye. A year to pull herself out of the funk that one week of hell had thrown her into.

 

Jakob was finally dead. The threat to the remaining free members of Central eliminated everyone had started to get on with their lives. Or some semblance of their lives.

 

Only moments after Jackson had died the room had been rushed. Scott and Jade entering first, guns drawn, they had stopped in shock as they saw Blair clutching Jackson’s body to hers. Brad standing helplessly over them his face a mixture of expressions. Anger, despair. Jakob’s body lying off to the side of the room. No one questioned Kelly and Sebastian’s presence’s.

 

Blair, Brad and Sebastian had all told the same story. Jackson had been tricked into betraying them. He had been buried a hero, taking a bullet meant for Blair. Todd of course knew something was up, maybe someday she would tell him the truth. But right now she needed the lie. They all did.

 

She knew that he had tried to get the truth out of Kelly. Badgered her insistently until he realized that she  was confused over everything that had happened and couldn’t help him.

  

She and Todd had been married two months later. He had wanted to remarry immediately but Blair had put him off. Wanting the funerals over first. Wanting to make sure that Todd wouldn’t walk away from her once he found out that she had been the one to kill Jakob. Wanting to make sure the nightmares were over so she could enjoy her honeymoon with the man she loved.

 

Brad had given her away. Cassie, Jade and Sandy had been bridesmaids. Scott had strangely enough stood up with Todd as his best man. The friendship that had formed between the two men was odd to say the least. The two men seemed to get on quite well. Sometimes to well, especially when they thought she wasn’t taking care of herself.

 

Bo had wanted to throw the book at her for shooting Jakob. He hadn’t bought that it had been in self-defense. But Brad and Andrew had pulled out paperwork. The paperwork that she had signed way back at 15 years old that told the world that she was a member of the Task Force and all charges had been dropped.

 

Bo had not been pleased, but forces above him who ordered him to drop it had tied his hands.

 

“It still looks the same,” she said softly to the body moving up behind her.

 

“Kind of bare,” Todd commented wrapping his arms around her waist, holding her tightly to him. He rested his chin on her shoulder as he surveyed the room.

 

“Yeah,” she leaned her head against his closing her eyes. “If I concentrate hard enough I can see myself at seventeen again… rushing through this room throwing everything I could into a backpack. I can still feel that damn tranquilizer dart.”

 

“It’s over now,” he whispered in her ear as he kissed her cheek lightly.

 

“I know,” she smiled. Holding his hands against her stomach she leaned back against him. “How did you know where I went?” She had left him sleeping soundly in their hotel room an hour before. She had wanted to make this trek herself. To once and for all lay the demons that resided in this building to rest.

 

“Scott called to let me know that you’d left the hotel. Sandy stayed with the kids, Scott, Brad and Jade came with me.”

 

“Are you guys trying to protect me?” she asked in amusement twisting her head so she could look up at him.

 

“No!” Todd muttered. “I learned my lesson last time… I just didn’t want you to go through this alone… you don’t need to go through this alone.”

 

“I know,” Blair sighed, raising one of his hands she pressed a gentle kiss to it before pulling away. “This… this I needed to do alone,” moving into the room she walked to the dresser. Pictures still lined the mirror. The only one she had taken the day she left had been the one of the four of them.

 

That childhood picture of her, Brad, Jade and Scott. It had been in the backpack that Jackie had returned to her. Along with the money and the file on the Hoboken case.

 

The pictures lining the mirror were of people that she only vaguely remembered.

 

A picture of her and Katie…

 

“First rule, never behave submissively, it will be seen as a sign of weakness. Always look whoever you’re speaking to in the eye. Do you understand?”

 

A picture of her and Sandy that she remembered Jackson taking. Sitting at the dining room table at the Sturgess home towards the end…

 

“You’re working with my dad, aren’t you? I thought Jackson was just joking… but he wasn’t, was he?”

 

One of her, standing between Brad and Jakob. Big smiles on all their faces.

 

“I’m assuming you didn’t kill him?”

 

Jackson and her… a football game that she had been bribed into going to by Sandy…

 

“I can be bad… If that’s what you really want.”

 

Scott, one arm wrapped around her, the other making bunny ears over her head.

 

“I don’t understand why you had to take up religion now. You hated church when we were living at the orphanage.”

 

Jade and her in one of those photo machines at the mall. Goofy smiles lining their faces. Acting every inch of their sixteen years for once…

 

“That girl… the one at Hoboken’s. That’s the reason you’re upset about it… it’s because she’d never opposed us.”

 

“I still can’t believe you ever looked that young,” Todd murmured from behind her as he studied the pictures with her. “And can I just say that I hate that hair color on you.”

 

Blair’s smile reflected in the mirror back to him. A low chuckle emitting from the bottom of her throat. “Join the club,” she squeezed his hand before wandering around the room.

 

Todd studied her. Looking for any sign that she wasn’t prepared to do this. They had been putting it off for so long that it had shocked him when she had suddenly announced two days prior that she was ready.

 

“I killed someone you know,” she said softly as she stared at the lop sided brick. “Several someone’s in fact.”

 

“I know.”

 

“I was a horrible person back then. I had no appreciation for human life. I did what Jakob told me to do and never questioned whether it was right or wrong.”

 

“What changed?” Todd asked gently. He knew of course. Had heard her tell the story back in the hospital, but she hadn’t discussed it again. Instead she had locked it deep within herself.

 

“Anna Warren,” she whispered. “She wasn’t supposed to die. I remember Jakob telling me that morning that I was to do whatever necessary to get the money Hoboken owed us. I used her… stabbed her with the knife that Brad gave me for my birthday,” she said almost absently. He noticed her fingers shaking as she touched the brick in the wall, rubbing the pads of her fingers over it. Not moving it, not yet.

 

“That was the first time I ever hated myself for something that I had done. Her death was one of the reasons that I went against Central in the first place. And it wasn’t even my fault,” she laughed hollowly as she slowly pulled the brick out of the wall.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Her fiancé… instead of taking her to the hospital immediately… he let her bleed to death. He didn’t want people to know that he had caved to Central. It was all a mistake, I went against Central because I hated myself for taking her life, hated the people that I worked for because they congratulated me on a job well done… and it wasn’t even my fault.”

 

“It’s over now,” Todd stated quietly as he moved up behind her. Resting his hands on her hips he stared at the empty hole in the wall.

 

“I know… but sometimes I wonder what would have happened… If I hadn’t betrayed Central… if I had stayed.”

 

“It’s not worth it,” Todd kissed the side of her gently. “If you had stayed in Central you wouldn’t have me, you wouldn’t have Starr, you wouldn’t have Jack…”

 

“I know,” Blair turned in his arms staring up at him. Holding the brick in one hand she cupped his cheek with the other. Gazing deeply into his eyes searching avidly for something that he hoped she saw. When she was satisfied with whatever she found there she smiled mysteriously and touched her lips to his. Just a whisper of a kiss. “I love you… and I wouldn’t give you guys up for anything.”

 

Turning once more she replaced the brick in the wall, shoving it completely in place she once more turned to him.

 

“It’s time I got on with my life, time I stopped looking back at things I can’t change,” she grinned. “Take me home Todd… I’m ready now.”

 

Linking arms he led her out of the room, and she never once looked back.

 

The End