Part 2

 

 

 

Kyle Manning loved his mother.

 

Sometimes he thought he shouldn’t. Especially times like these when she had gone home and not taken him with her. When she had seen the father and sister that he hadn’t even met yet. He did know what his father and sister looked like though. Pictures were scattered around the house.

 

Pictures of his mom and dad together. Pictures of his older sister, Starr adorned the wall in his and her rooms. Just a few weeks before his mother had hung her new school picture. Sometimes when he was bored or wanted to feel close to the family that he’d never had a chance to meet he would stare at the pictures. Trying to discern which member of his family he looked like.

 

He had decided, with his six-year-old eyes, that while he might have his mothers’ eyes, he looked like his father. The father he had never met.

 

His mom said as soon as the bad man was caught that they would go home. They had been hiding from the bad man for years. His mom had to pretend to be someone else in order to protect herself, him and the others. He knew she hated it sometimes, she grumbled about being a cop of all things and how his daddy would not understand. He liked the fact that his mom worked for the FBI, his uncle Michael said that she was a good cop, like his aunt Kylie had been.

 

He loved his Uncle Michael. He loved his Uncle Wesley and Aunt Darleen to. Wesley was his favorite uncle though. He was cool, plus he had a motorcycle that if he was really good sometimes he got to ride on. Without his mothers knowledge of course, because as Wesley said his mom would have a cow if she found out.

 

Someday he would leave them and go home with his mom though. She had warned him that she would most likely not be living with his father and sister. That she would be living separately from them. To which he had said than he didn’t want to live with them either. His mom had hugged him and told him that he would love living with his daddy and Starr.

 

He didn’t think so. He loved living with his mom. She understood him, and for the longest time she had been all his. He didn’t know what he would do when he had to share her with his sister and his dad. Would she still love him as much as she did?

 

She had already tried to take him home once. Last year Carlos, the bad man, had tried for her again. Carlos didn’t know about him and his mom had almost taken him to his father to protect, she didn’t want Carlos to ever find out about him.

 

Uncle Wesley and he had talked her out of it. His daddy wouldn’t know how to handle a five-year-old psychic. And without his mom around he would have no one to teach him what he needed to know. Plus wouldn’t it look sort of suspicious for the son that had been missing for five years to just suddenly show up on the doorstep. His mom had gotten that distressed sad look and relented, so everyone had moved into the house with them.

 

So when she wasn’t there, when her job called her far away the people that cared about him would protect him and teach him.

 

He like the others had felt the flash of power that morning. It was only the second time that he’d ever felt a flash like that. Like the others he had passed out, he hadn’t liked that. When Aunt Darleen got home she had given him a children’s Tylenol and tucked him into bed, telling him that his mother would be home soon. And here she was.

 

He glanced over at where his mother had curled up in the bed with him. She had started to read him a bedtime story but had fallen asleep in the middle of it. He didn’t care though, he liked sleeping with his mom. When her guard was down, like it was now, he could see the pictures.

 

The pictures of how his parents had met, what his sister looked like then and now, some of the fights they’d had.

 

He knew his mother wasn’t perfect. He knew that she had lied to his father, that he had thought that he, Kyle, was that icky Max’s. He wrinkled his nose in distaste, he didn’t ever want to meet Max. He wasn’t a nice person. She’d told other lies to. Lies designed to protect herself, to get what she wanted when she had nothing.

 

The fact that he knew so much about his parents was a hazard that his mother had to take, after all he was the first psychic kid she’d raised and she’d had no idea what to expect. He knew that his sister had no powers, his father had none either. His mother hadn’t been a strong psychic until six years ago. Now she was the strongest psychic in the house whereas before she’d had mostly weak intuition based skills.

 

He’d been just a newborn when she was kidnapped so he didn’t remember any of it. What he did know he had learned from the flashes. He knew that the bad man had hurt her, had hurt Aunt Kylie and that when Carlos had hurt her he had broke the barrier between psychic levels down.

 

See the hazards of having a six-year-old psychic.

 

You couldn’t keep secrets from them.

 

“Baby why aren’t you asleep?” Blair mumbled sleepily as she rolled onto her side, touching her sons face. Brushing his hair back from his eyes before wrapping her arms around him to cuddle him close.

 

“I’ve been sleeping all day mommy, I’m not tired anymore,” he protested as he wiggled in her arms.

 

“Just a couple more hours baby, than we’ll get some breakfast,” Blair promised closing her eyes again.

 

“Okay,” Kyle sighed resting his head on her arm. He guessed he could sleep for a couple more hours. He wondered if he should tell her that he probably wouldn’t sleep at all tonight, then decided against it. “I love you mommy,” he whispered closing his eyes.

 

“I love you to baby,” she kissed the back of his head, smiling softly as she tightened her arms around him. She was happy to be home.

 

 

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

 

 

“Cereal for my lord captain,” Wesley said drolly as he placed the bowl in front of Kyle, ruffling his hair as he took the seat on the other side of Blair.

 

“So… plans for today?” he asked raising his eyebrows at Blair as he sipped his coffee.

 

“You mean after the family meeting?” she asked as she leaned back in her chair, idly swinging her fork through her scrambled eggs. “Grocery shopping.”

 

“Good… I think we’re out of everything,” Wesley smirked at her.

 

“Why don’t I get to stay for the family meeting?” Kyle asked.

 

“Because you know everything already,” Darleen grinned winking at him.

 

“Baby if you’re really good for Aunt Karen today we’ll go to that pizza place that you like so much tomorrow night… okay?”

 

“Okay,” Kyle said morosely as he stared at his cereal.

 

“Don’t even… you are not going to get a mini bike out of this,” Blair warned as she started eating her eggs.

 

“But mommy! Wesley had one when he was my age,” Kyle whined.

 

Blair swung her gaze to Wesley he winced and then shrugged. “Yes and look how much brain damage was caused by it.”

 

“Morning all… Kyle you almost ready?” a smiling Karen asked as she strolled into the kitchen, Michael close on her heels.

 

“Yeah… Mommy?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“I love you,” Kyle whispered, standing up in his chair he wrapped his arms around her neck, kissing her cheek.

 

“I love you too… be good,” Blair whispered back.

 

“I will,” he promised jumping down from the chair. Taking Karen’s hand he dragged her out of the kitchen as she blew a kiss to Michael.

 

“So…” Michael started.

 

“So… how legal is this divorce overturn thing that Todd did?” Blair asked turning to Wesley.

 

Wesley leaned his chair back precariously on two legs as he held the table with one hand. “Well I was able to get my hands on the paperwork and its all on the up and up… When you come back from the dead one of you will have to file for divorce, again… Unless you want to stay married?” Wesley asked with raised eyebrows.

 

“I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Blair sighed. “Besides there’s no way of knowing if any of us will survive Carlos and whatever diabolical scheme he’s come up with.”

 

“Well the emeralds means that he knows something,” Darleen said. “We just don’t know what.”

 

“I think its me… I think he knows that I’m not Kylie… and I think he knows that whatever covers we have in place were put there by Michael,” Blair said nodding at Michael as she began drumming her fingers against the tabletop.

 

“You know we would be stronger, he couldn’t have got to us like he did yesterday if all six of us were together,” Wesley mused.

 

“But unfortunately we’re not six strong,” Michael snapped. “We haven’t managed to find Blair’s brother yet, and Kylie….”

 

“We know Michael,” Blair soothed as she reached across the table laying her hand across his. He turned it over gripping it tightly. “Are we even sure that I have a sibling?”

 

“I’ve gone to the first orphanage that you were in… their papers were in total disarray from a move and being in storage, but when you came there you came with a brother. He was one year older than you, both of you dropped on the doorstep by they don’t know who… He was placed with a family right away while you…” Wesley shook his head.

 

“While I went from orphanage to orphanage, foster home to foster home… Do the papers say who he went to?” Blair said bitterly

 

 “No… but I’m still looking, I’m sure I’ll find something soon.”

 

“But until then we’re still only four strong,” Darleen said quietly, eyes downcast.

 

“There might not even be a brother to make a fifth,” Blair said quietly. “Momma never said anything about my having a brother.”

 

“Yes but you also said that your mother doesn’t remember having you half the time,” Wesley said softly as he placed his hand over Darleen’s. “You guys are going to work on the emerald today?” he asked changing the subject, receiving grateful looks from Blair and Darleen.

 

“Yeah, I got the fax first thing this morning from Josh, the woman was a transient, still unidentified. They’ve placed her age at 36. There still running her prints through the system hoping for a match,” Blair said as she sipped her coffee.

 

“Well I have to got to the office, file some paperwork… Michael you need a ride to the station?” Wesley asked standing up. He rinsed his cup in the sink before sitting it on the side.

 

“Yeah thanks… be careful with the emerald,” Michael warned as he to stood. “We don’t know what kind of powers the victim had.”

 

“Yeah, yeah… I think Darleen and I can handle it,” Blair smirked.

 

 

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

  

 

Todd sat on the couch head leaned back, eyes closed waiting for Starr to come down. This was the longest she had ever slept and he wondered if he should go check on her.

 

“Morning dad,” he heard her say, opening his eyes he took in her appearance. Black jeans, red T-shirt. No sign of the tears that had been falling last night.

 

“You okay?” he asked as she sat on the steps watching him.

 

“Yeah… I guess it was stupid huh? Thinking that Agent Jensen was mom.”

 

“No it wasn’t,” Todd sighed closing his eyes again. He had debated all night, into the morning what to tell her. To tell the truth or to lie and hope it didn’t bite him in the ass.

 

“What’d you mean it wasn’t? She told me dad… she told me that mom was dead,” Starr said hoarsely. Her throat and eyes hurt from crying all night. She never wanted to be that sad or angry again.

 

“Well I don’t know what to tell you shorty,” Todd started, stopping as he wondered briefly he was doing the right thing.

 

“Just tell me dad… What’s going on?” Starr asked as she stood, moving to the couch, huddling next to him. Watching him from the corner of her eye.

 

“Yesterday when your… when she passed out… We called Larry to come take a look at her, remember?”

 

“Yeah, she came to and left after that,” Starr said bitterly. She remembered how happy she’d been. Thinking her mother was alive and that she would be coming home bringing her little brother with her.

 

“Well when Larry was here I had him take some blood, run some tests, that sort of thing…”

 

“And?”

 

“Well there was some weird stuff in her blood. Some chemicals that Larry couldn’t identify, but the crux of everything was that the blood that was drawn from Kylie Jensen is the same blood that’s running through your mothers veins,” Todd said quietly as he ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t understand any of it.

 

“So you’re saying that Agent Jensen is mom… That she lied to me?! Mom doesn’t lie to me dad,” Starr protested hotly.

 

“We don’t know what’s happened in the last six years shorty… Larry thinks that one of the drugs is blocker of some sort, he thinks she might be suffering from some sort of amnesia… or something.”

 

“You know what this means dad?” Starr said excitedly.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“This means that mom’s alive,” she said hugging Todd tightly. “You’re going to figure out how to help her right dad? Then you’re going to bring her and my brother home… where they belong, right?”

 

“I promise that I’m going to do everything in my power to figure this out shorty… Don’t you worry about that,” Todd promised grimly. Drawing away he patted Starr on the head. “Now go get your books for school.”

 

 

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

 

 

Darleen watched Blair’s expressions as they held their hands over the emerald.  With her hands above Blairs, even with all the shields in place she could still feel the power radiating from it.

 

“Damn,” she muttered.

 

“She was strong… I don’t understand how…”

 

Even as Blair spoke they pierced the second level of the emerald. The level that would show them what the intent of use had been.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“You can’t do this to me! I’m on your side.”

 

“She can’t give you what I can give you.”

 

The whispers of the female voice reverberated through their heads as the stone showed them the secrets of the woman killed. She had been working with the madman. She had been helping him. But in the end he had killed her. In the end she had used the power of the emerald to try and protect herself.

 

Through the stone they could both feel her unfaltering jealousy of his interest in Kylie. She had been angry, upset that he was using her to get to Kylie. She felt she had just as much, if not more power as the other had. Blair shuddered as she felt the anger, anger directed at her, at Kylie flow endlessly through her. The woman had planned on killing her. So that Carlos would be forced to use her instead.

 

“She was working with him,” Blair said softly as she dropped her hands, staring at the emerald even as Darleen covered it with a velvet cloth.

 

“Why would he be so intent on getting to you, or Kylie if he already had a psychic in place? I thought that was the whole point of this,” Darleen leaned back in her chair tapping her fingers against the tabletop.

 

“I don’t know… this whole thing doesn’t make any sense. Kylie always said that he was entranced by her… maybe it was her and not the fact that she was a psychic?” Blair mused as she rested her head in her hands. Closing her eyes she tapped her foot under the table.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“This is never going to be over… is it?”

 

“Yes it is,” Darleen reached over the table, making a point of missing the emerald she touched Blair’s arm softly. Blair raised her head her eyes strained and troubled.

 

“I’m tired,” she whispered.

 

“I know… we just have to catch him, once we catch him you can go home… just like you always planned,” Darleen smiled gently. “This isn’t about Carlos, is it? This is about Todd and your daughter.”

 

Blair looked away, looking out the window over the sink she saw that a breeze had started. The branches of the tree outside the window were swaying gently, almost hypnotically. “I lied to them… I looked them both right in the eye and lied to them.”

 

“You did what you had to do. You know if you tell them the truth you make them targets. Once this is over you can explain everything to them. If they love you, if they care about you they’ll understand.”

 

“I know,” Blair closed her eyes, a tear escaping the corner of her eye before she brushed it away. “When I saw Todd, in the police station it took just about every bit of will power that I had to keep from jumping into his arms… I wanted to tell him the truth, I hated lying to him. We’ve spent to much of our time lying to each other.”

 

“You know you can’t tell him the truth, right?” Darleen reiterated tightening her hand around Blair’s arm.

 

“I know,” Blair smiled a watery smile at her as she ran her fingers through her hair. “I was sitting at that table taking Viki and his statements and all I could think of was what Carlos threatened to do to him. The things he threatened to do to Starr… and I couldn’t tell him. I couldn’t put them at risk.”

 

“So why are you so upset about this?”

 

“Because Todd knew the minute he saw me that I wasn’t Kylie… He kept hammering at me trying to get me to tell him the truth, he… well, he kissed me.”

 

“He kissed you? As Kylie?”

 

“No me, believing me to be me,” Blair wrinkled her nose as she thought about the words coming out of her mouth. “You know if people were to hear us talking they would think we were suffering from split personalities or something.”

 

“Does Todd still think you’re you and not Kylie?” Darleen asked with a small measure of alarm.

 

“I don’t know… he sicced Starr on me… He knows I wouldn’t lie to Starr… but I did. He should think that I’m Kylie now not Blair.”

 

“Well that’s good… right?”

 

“No… I lied to them Darleen. It’s bad enough that I lied to Todd, I’ve done that before… But I lied to Starr and Cassie and a bunch of other people that didn’t deserve it.”

 

“You’re protecting them Blair… If you tell them the truth you make them a target for Carlos… He’ll use whatever means necessary to get you or rather Kylie back.”

 

“I know… it’s just,” Blair sighed heavily. “I’m tired… I want to go home, I want to take my son home. He deserves a chance to have a normal life. He deserves to know his father and his sister, I was wrong to keep them separated.”

 

“You didn’t have much choice in the matter. We’ve all had to do things we normally wouldn’t do, give up things we didn’t want to give up in order to protect the people that we loved.”

 

“I should have sent him home last year when Carlos tried to grab me again.”

 

“Wesley and Kyle were both right though,” Darleen smiled softly. “If you had sent him home, with Todd not knowing about his powers, not knowing how to deal with him, it would have done both of them more harm than good. Plus Carlos knew that Kyle had last been with you, if all of a sudden he showed up with your husband he would have become suspicious.”

 

“You weren’t there, you didn’t see how upset he was, how upset Starr was… Plus he knew, he knew that Kyle was his and not Max’s… he knew before I left town. If he had told me…”

 

“Would that have changed anything? This Carlos crap had already started then, those things he threatened to do to your family, they would have been nothing compared to what he would have actually done.”

 

“I know,” Blair whispered. “I saw it all when he broke through the levels, I have nightmares about what I saw. But this needs to end… Kyle, he sees things when my guards are down, I don’t want him to see what I saw.”

 

 

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

 

 

Kyle sat cross-legged on his bed studying the picture lying in front of him. It was a family picture, obviously. Of his father, his sister and his various aunts and cousins. He had no idea why the picture had been taken, he personally didn’t care. What he did care about was the fact that him and his mom were not in it.

 

Tracing a finger over his fathers face, then his sisters he concentrated on clearing his mind.

 

He had been forbidden to do this. His mom had told him that he was to young, his uncles told him that he didn’t have enough control, his aunts told him it was dangerous.

 

But Wesley, despite his objections had taught him how to do it, explaining to everyone that if he knew the basics he would be less apt to try it by himself. Tonight he was going to try it by himself.

 

He was tired of learning about his father and sister through his mom’s thoughts and dreams. Some of that was probably clouded by her own personal feelings. He wanted to see them firsthand. He wanted to know them firsthand.

 

When he had realized early this morning that his mom would go to bed earlier than normal he’d had to contain his enthusiasm and block his thoughts from the others. He knew that every so often they would take peaks, just to make sure he wasn’t up to any mischief.

 

Like the time that he had gotten up really early one morning to change everyone on their blocks license plates. It had taken him two hours to switch them all, his mom and Darleen were the only ones that knew that he was the one that had done it. He still wasn’t sure where that idea had come from. It had just popped into his head one night.

 

His mom had just shook her head and begged him to be a good boy. And he was a good boy normally. He never wanted to disappoint his mom. He never wanted to make her worry about him either.

 

But he was tired of waiting to meet his family. He knew that he couldn’t just go to them, but this way at least he could see them. As he touched the picture one last time he took a deep breath, setting it aside he stretched out on the bed closing his eyes. Evening his breathing out as he relaxed all the muscles in his body.

 

He was six years old and tonight he would try astral projection for the first time all by himself.

 

 

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

 

 

Todd paced as he held the phone to his ear listening to Bo bitch on the other end.

 

“Look Bo, Larry’s going to send everything to you… All I want from you is for you to get the order to excavate Blair’s grave.”

 

“And I’m telling you Manning that it’s a bad idea… Why don’t you sit down and talk to Dorian and Viki, maybe Sam…”

 

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a fucking idiot Bo, just do it.”

 

“Well don’t act like one then… There is no way that Kylie Jensen is Blair Cramer… Besides the fact that the FBI performed the autopsy and blood tests and confirmed that the body they had was indeed Blair you didn’t see her when she was going over that last victim. Blair couldn’t have done what I saw Agent Jensen do,” Bo said firmly.

 

“Just look at the test results, Larry said they were conclusive,” Todd sighed raking a hand through his hair as he noticed Starr sitting on the top of the steps. He smiled at her as he saw her waiting. She was as anxious to find out the truth as he was. If Kylie was Blair, did that mean that Kylie was buried in Blair’s grave? Or was it the third one?

 

“I just got the fax,” Bo said distractedly, Todd could hear him leafing through the sheets. “Shit,” he muttered.

 

“Exactly,” Todd said. “Now are you going to have some boys dig up my wife’s grave? Or should I get a couple of shovels and have you meet me there later?”

 

“I’ll get a backhoe out there first thing in the morning… Todd how many people know that you had the divorce overturned?” Bo asked suddenly.

 

“I don’t know, a couple… You, Dorian, Tea, Sam, Starr, Blair and me.”

 

“You told Kylie… Blair?”

 

“Yeah… when I was trying to convince her to come clean… it just sort of slipped out. She kept saying ex-wife, ex-wife, ex-wife and finally I got tired of it. Why?”

 

“Because Sam just slipped me a note saying that someone requested a copy of the papers overturning the divorce a couple of days ago.”

 

“Who?” Todd asked quietly as he walked to the window of the penthouse.

 

“He doesn’t know yet…” Todd could hear Bo and Sam conferring quietly on the other end. “He said it was a firm out of Virginia.”

 

“Tell him to find out who made the request… And Bo let me know when the grave’s dug up,” Todd said before he hung up the phone. Turning he held it in one hand as he studied his daughter.

 

“What have you been doing?” he asked waving the phone at her. She was dusty from head to toe, a small speck of dirt staining her nose.

 

“I was cleaning the baby’s room… I figure we’ll have to get rid of the crib and stuff, put a bed in there,” Starr trailed off as she watched a distant expression cross his face. “Dad?”

 

“Don’t you think you’re jumping the gun just a bit shorty? We haven’t got anything concrete besides some blood tests saying that your mothers alive… And besides which, what if she doesn’t have the baby with her?”

 

“He’s not going to be a baby dad… He should be about six now, and of course he’ll be with mom…Where else would he be?”

 

 

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

 

 

Blair tossed and turned in her bed as her mind raced. She was plagued with nightmares. She’d been plagued with them for years now.

 

“Here take this,” Kylie said unhooking her necklace quickly. She cast a quick glance at the locked door as she pushed away Blair’s hands and fastened it around her neck.

 

“Kylie you don’t have to do this,” Blair protested in a thick voice. She wanted to cry. Was this how everything was going to end? After all the trouble she went through to protect her son she was going to die and leave him alone.

 

“Yes I do… If I hadn’t called you here to meet the others you would never have seen Carlos… This is my fault,” Kylie said touching Blair’s cheek gently. “Take good care of your son, he’s going to be so special.”

 

“Ky,” Blair cried.

 

“It’s going to be okay,” Kylie said in soothing tones.

 

Blair didn’t understand how she could be so calm. She knew what Carlos had in mind. He was a rapist, a murderer. The door opening suddenly caused both women to flinch back; Blair put a hand up in front of her face to block out the light. She could see the blood on her hands from where Carlos had hit her with the knife. One eye would soon be swelled shut.

 

“All right Ms. Cramer… it’s your lucky day,” Carlos grinned from where he was standing in the door. Walking into the room he touched the necklace now hanging around Blair’s neck. “I’ll be back for you soon,” he winked as he pulled a small switchblade from his pocket. Swiftly he cut through the duct tape that had been binding Kylie’s wrists together. Hauling her to her feet he dragged her struggling from the room. Blair herself continued to struggle to free herself.

 

“Carlos!” she screamed. “Don’t do this… you don’t know what you’re doing!!”

 

The first scream caused her to shrink back into herself, the second made her want to heave as she hazarded a glance out the door and saw Carlos on Kylie. Blair closed her eyes as she attempted to clamp her hands over her ears. She didn’t want to hear the guttural noises he made as he raped one of her closest friends, one of her closest blood relatives. She cried silently as she rocked herself. Praying to God for help, for salvation. For something.

 

Todd had been a rapist. Had Marty struggled like Kylie was? Or had she just given up and submitted? The Todd she knew hadn’t been like that. The one that she had loved had only once threatened to hurt her like that and even then he couldn’t go through with it in the end.

 

Blair opened her eyes slowly as she heard the noises from the other room stop, lowering her hands from where she had been attempting to use them to block her ears she looked once again out the door. Her eyes meeting Kylie’s tear-filled ones as she struggled once again to free herself from her restraints.

 

She saw Carlos pulling his jeans back up, he didn’t bother to fasten them as he flipped the switchblade that had been laying on the floor open. Tracing the knife down Kylie’s belly she ignored him, her eyes fixed on Blair’s. Blair stopped struggling as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing in Kylie’s eyes, she looked at peace.

 

Carlos raised the knife and in a quick downward motion sliced into Kylie’s belly. Both women screamed.

 

Kylie in pain.

 

Blair because she could feel Kylie’s pain. She could feel the pain of the rape, the sickness that Kylie felt in her stomach. The certainty that she was going to die. The certainty that her dying was the right thing because this way… this way Blair would live.

 

Blair struggled to bring under control the thoughts and feelings that were flying through her head. Thoughts and feelings that were not her own.

 

She could hear Carlos thoughts, could feel his glee as he thought of the only witness to his crimes dying. He thought he might still go look up her family. Take care of the father, maybe keep the daughter for himself.

 

She could feel Kylie fading away, feel the force that was her life energy slipping from this plane of existence and as Carlos struck his final blow Blair’s vision blurred, her body convulsed and she screamed before she passed out.

 

Blair screamed as she sat straight up in bed, her eyes flashing the brilliant green she choked back a sob as she relived the worst day of her entire life.

 

 

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

 

 

Kyle jerked straight up on his bed as he heard his mother scream. He had barely gotten relaxed, had barely started when he had heard her screaming. Leaping off his bed he ran down the hallway to his mothers room. Wesley standing in the door in his pajama bottoms held his hands out capturing Kyle in his arms as he went to run by.

 

Kyle struggled as he tried to get a good look into the room. He saw Michael sitting on the bed next to his mom, holding her as she trembled. Sensing her son nearby Blair lifted her head and reached out her arms towards him.

 

Wesley set him on the floor and he ran to her, flinging himself into her arms. She gripped him tightly against her and he wrapped his arms around her neck. Michael held his hand lightly against her back, Kyle knew that he was blocking whatever nightmare she’d had so he wouldn’t see it.

 

Drawing away Blair pressed a series of soft kisses against Kyle’s forehead before smiling at him weakly.

 

“Are you okay mommy? I heard you screaming,” Kyle said softly as he stared into her eyes.

 

“It was just a nightmare baby… I’m sorry I woke you up.”

 

“Here,” Darleen said quietly holding a glass of water out to her. She ruffled Kyle’s hair as Blair took the glass from her. “Did Karen find the…”

 

“Yeah I got them,” Karen said rushing into the room. Two pills held in her hand, Blair shook her head refusing them.

 

“I don’t want those,” she said stubbornly as she sipped her water. Her hand trembled violently splashing water out of the cup on to her legs.

 

“Blair you need them,” Darleen took the pills from Karen and held them out to her. “Take them,” she ordered gently.

 

Blair stared at the pills, closing her eyes as she pressed her face into her sons’ hair. “If I have another nightmare… I’ll be trapped.”

 

“I’ll stay in here with you,” Darleen smiled gently. Blair sighed as she held out her hand, popping the pills in her mouth she washed them down with the water… and had to wonder… is this what her life had come to? Popping pills in order to keep from having nightmares. Having to have her family sleep with her to protect her from them.

 

What would she do when she did finally get the chance to go home? Would finally being with Todd again drown out the horrors that she had seen? Or would she be forever plagued by them because of who she was.

 

“All right Kyle lets get you back to bed so your mom can get some sleep,” Wesley said finally after a moment of silence. Waiting for Kyle to kiss his mother goodnight again he touched Darleen’s shoulder lightly. “If you need anything,” he whispered.

 

“We’ll be fine,” Darleen assured him.

 

“I can stay in here with you mommy… you don’t have nightmares when I sleep in here,” Kyle said as he wrapped his arms once more around Blair’s neck.

 

“No… you need your sleep as much as I do… Go to bed,” she whispered, she kissed him once more on the cheek. Looking up at Wesley she nodded slightly and he scooped Kyle up in his arms.

 

“Night mommy,” he called, giggling as Wesley tickled him.

 

“Night baby,” Blair whispered staring after them. Laying her hand across Darleen’s she looked over at her. “You really don’t have to stay in here… I’ll be okay.”

 

“No… it’s okay… You should lay down before those pills take affect,” Darleen grinned as she saw Blair fighting back a yawn, her eyes suddenly drooping.

 

“Darleen if you need anything,” Michael said as he stood, pulling Karen against his side they watched as Blair turned on to her side, pulling a pillow into her arms she shook slightly as her eyes closed.

 

“I’ll call,” Darleen promised as she ushered them out of the room. Closing the door behind them she turned back to the bed gnawing on her bottom lip as she stared at Blair’s now still form. Grabbing a quilt off the chest at the foot of her bed she shook it out laying it over Blair’s body and then slumped in the rocking chair.

 

She knew what nightmares plagued Blair. There had been one night right after she had come home from the hospital that she’d had one. None of them had been strongly shielded at that point, they had never thought there to be any need. They had been wrong.

 

Blair’d had the nightmare and dragged all of them into it with her. She knew what Blair and Kylie had been through had been traumatic as hell, but Blair had survived it. Kylie sacrificing herself so Blair would have a chance to raise her son. She didn’t think that Kylie had thought that Carlos would kill her, that Carlos would kill Blair. But he had. It hadn’t mattered that the women were identical, Carlos wanted the one that he had been intent on for so many years. He wanted the one that he’d stalked and watched. And he’d identified her by her necklace.

 

The thought had never crossed his mind that Kylie would sacrifice herself rather than see someone innocent suffer. And Kylie had thought of Blair as an innocent.

 

Kylie had been the reason that Blair had chosen D.C. to have her baby. The two women had met by chance in NYC, drawn to each other by the fact that they looked identical they had become fast friends. But no one had ever known.

 

When Blair had needed someplace to hide in order to have her baby safely Kylie had offered her assistance… and a chance for Blair to finally meet the others. She had called Darleen and Wesley, telling them that she had found their fifth. Gloating because Wesley had always thought that Darleen would be the one to find her.

 

Two weeks after her arrival Blair had seen Carlos with one of his victims. Kylie had been late and she had been bored, she had been walking around the park trails brushing her hands across trees just reveling in the fact that she wasn’t scared. When she had seen Carlos he had just finished raping his victim, Blair had watched in stunned silence as his eyes met hers and then she had ran.

 

Running into Kylie she had babbled out the story and Kylie had got her to a safe house immediately. Keeping her identity a secret, because she was still hiding out from her ex-husband. Darleen wondered sometimes if Blair wouldn’t have been better off running to her ex instead of away. By all accounts Todd Manning was a brutal man, but if he had known what she had seen, what she had gone through, he would have protected her. Of that Darleen had no doubt.

 

Darleen evened her breathing as she saw Blair’s hand start clenching rhythmically. The nightmare was beginning again. As she closed her eyes she prayed that Blair was past the worst part.

 

 

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

 

Blair opened her eyes slowly. She could feel wetness on her face, her body aching, for a moment she was confused. Where was she, what had happened?

 

Focusing on her surroundings she flinched as she sat up. Her hands still taped together she cautiously got to her feet. Swaying slightly, her head felt heavy and she felt exhaustion creeping over her. Quietly walking to the door she peered out. Hoping that Carlos was gone, hoping that what she had seen had been just a waking nightmare. That she hadn’t watched him rape Kylie, stab Kylie.

 

She walked as quietly as possible, her eyes locked on Kylie’s nude body stretched out on the bed.

 

God why was there so much blood?

 

“Ky,” she whispered tearfully as she touched her face. Tears leaking from her eyes she stifled a sob as she saw the gunshot to the head.

 

For small miracles she was grateful. With everything else she had felt she hadn’t felt the gunshot. Blair stopped for a minute, her eyes widening as her mind wrapped around what she had felt.

 

She had felt what Kylie had felt, the aftermath of the rape, the knife slicing into her body.

 

How the hell had that happened? What the hell was going on?!

 

“Kylie,” she said more forcefully as she kneeled on the bed, careful not to jar Kylie’s body. She pressed a hand to her chest, ignoring the blood she could feel Kylie’s chest rising laboriously with every breath she took.

 

A noise grabbed her attention and her eyes met those of a yellow tabby cat that had just made its way into the room. Glancing around the room she saw the knife that Carlos had used on Kylie lying on the floor, her blood still staining it. Sliding from the bed Blair picked it up awkwardly cutting the duct tape binding her hands together. Then she laid the knife aside.

 

“Kylie,” she said softly patting her cheek. “I’ll be right back.”

 

The quick glance around the room had showed her that the clothes she and Kylie had been wearing when Carlos had nabbed them were thrown over the back of a chair. Wincing as she pulled on the slacks she had been wearing, she ignored the bloody hand prints she was leaving on her peach sweater. She pulled on the dress shoes she had been wearing, then changed her mind. She wouldn’t be able to carry Kylie and walk in the three-inch heels. She pulled Kylie’s sneakers on then rushed to the bed again. She snapped the knife closed, wrapping it in a pillowcase before shoving it in her pocket.

 

Pulling a sheet up she wrapped it around Kylie’s body. The blood soaked through the sheet quickly and by the time Blair had hauled Kylie to her feet the sheet was stained with her blood.

 

Pulling one of Kylie’s arms around her shoulder she gripped her around the upper body then half carried, half dragged her out of the building.

 

She didn’t see Carlos anywhere. She also didn’t see the car that he had brought them to his horrible place in. That meant she would have to walk, her arm tightened around Kylie as she ignored the fatigue in her muscles.

 

Kylie was still alive, if she could get her to a hospital there was a chance.

 

Blair braced herself, taking one step at a time. Never allowing herself to think of the worst. Thinking instead of the best, of her family.

 

Kyle.

 

Starr.

 

Todd.

 

Her mind raced with images and thoughts of her family.

 

Her sweet baby boy. With his daddy’s face and her eyes.

 

Her beautiful daughter. Who come hell, high water, or Todd Manning she was bound and determined to see again.

 

Her children’s father. Todd. Her lover, her savior, her destroyer.

 

She had already planned on going on home before this had happened. She had resolved to tell him the truth and see where the chips fell. She knew he loved her. Just like she loved him. She wouldn’t let some sicko with an insane desire for Kylie stand in the way of her going home. Of her taking her son home.

 

She almost collapsed when she saw the hospital. With its’ bright red Emergency light illuminated she wanted to cry.

 

“Almost there,” she muttered to an unresponsive Kylie.

 

Her legs shook with effort as she took the last few steps that would bring her into the emergency room. All activity stopped as they entered. A nurse gasping, a doctor with horrified eyes staring at them.

 

“I need help here,” Blair croaked out.

 

And suddenly there was movement. She felt Kylie being removed from her arms felt hands steady her as her vision wavered.

 

“What’s your name? Ma’am?” she heard someone ask from far away. She pressed a hand to her head as she struggled with her thoughts, struggled to not pass out. She needed to talk to the others she needed to tell them what had happened.

 

“My name… “ Blair started as the darkness overtook her and she passed out.

 

 

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

 

Todd stood in the doorway of the empty nursery. When he had found out that the baby Blair was carrying was his, when he had decided that he was bringing them both home he had commissioned this room.

 

Starr had helped him pick out everything in it. From the murals adorning the wall, to the stuffed animals, to the furniture they had both painstakingly put this room together. United in the desire to have both wife/mother and son/brother home they had never voiced concerns that the room would never be used.

 

Starr had faith that her father would find her mother and bring her home where she belonged.

 

Todd had faith because he always got what he wanted. Regardless of what the other person wanted.

 

He had shut and locked this room when they had found “Blair’s” body.  When it became evident that their son had vanished and his wife had been murdered.

 

Walking into the room he turned slowly. Starr was right. While this room had at one time been suitable for an infant, for a baby. For his six-year-old son it was not. Kneeling in the middle of the room he touched the stuffed animals lying on the floor. Starr had dragged a box in here and had been throwing the toys into it when he had sent her to bed.

 

He picked up a small green dragon. Staring into the black button eyes he decided that this one could stay. It reminded him of a story that he had told Blair a million years ago. A fairy tale of a dragon that had rescued the princess from the evil two-headed Max and evil ugly witch Skye.

 

What had been true then was even truer now. He might not be saving her from the clutches of Max and Skye, he might not be in the middle of covering up an attempted murder… but there was no doubt in his mind that Blair needed to be rescued.

 

The question was… just what did she need to be rescued from?

 

 

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

 

“Sister Agatha,” Todd nodded to the elderly nun as he went to walk past her into Addie’s room. “How is she today?”

 

“She’s the most lucid that she’s been in a long time Mr. Manning, I believe they’re both waiting for you,” Sister Aggie nodded as Todd stopped at the door. Turning to look back at her in confusion as he twisted the knob in his hand.

 

“They? Addie should be the only one waiting,” Todd said as he pushed the door open.

 

“You really didn’t think I’d let you talk to Addie alone about this… did you Todd?” Dorian asked with a smirk from where she was siting on the bed next to Addie.

 

Todd growled low in his throat as he slapped the envelope against his leg. “Dorian,” he nodded. “I should have known.”

 

“Todd,” Addie reprimanded gently. “Don’t be cross with Dorrie… I’m the one that told her that you were coming to ask me some questions.”

 

“That’s okay Addie,” Todd smiled gently at his mother-in-law. Sometimes she knew who he was, sometimes she didn’t. But she was the closest link, besides Starr that he had to Blair. He picked the desk chair up and sat it across from Addie, laying the envelope on his lap as he made himself comfortable. They had never told Addie about ‘Blair’s’ death. She had only asked once or twice why Blair never came to visit her and those times they had all made excuses. Blair was out of town, she was sick. Todd didn’t think that Addie would understand that Blair was dead.

 

“Now you have questions about Jeremy,” Addie said quietly looking with wide eyes between Todd and Dorian.

 

“Who?” Dorian asked with a confused look at Todd.

 

“Jeremy… Blair’s father,” Addie said matter-of-factly tearing off a piece of the licorice stick in her hand before she looked between them. “He’s the reason you’re here right?”

 

“Addie, honey,” Dorian said gently. “I think you’re confused… Blair’s daddy was a bad man, remember? He hurt you when you were in that first hospital.”

 

“I think you’re confused Dorrie,” Addie smiled. “Blair had a wonderful daddy… Jeremy Samuels,” she leaned forward to Todd, patting him softly on the knee. “He was a gifted man you know.”

 

“I’m sure he was,” Todd smiled back at her rolling his eyes at Dorian when Addie looked down to pull another stick of licorice from the bag next to her. “Why don’t you tell us about him?”

 

“Well… I met him a long time ago. The doctors at the first hospital, they told me that I wasn’t crazy anymore so they discharged me. I was just a young thing,” she leaned her head back against the wall. “I decided to go dancing and that’s where I met him. He was there with his cousins, I thought they were triplets when I first saw them,” her brow wrinkled as she thought for a minute. “But I’m almost positive that he told me later that they were cousins.”

 

She shrugged as she fingered the candy stick softly. “I couldn’t tell the other two apart… What were their names?” she mused quietly. “Paul and Simon,” she grinned happily at both of them as if she had just had a Eureka moment. “But Jeremy, I always knew which one he was, they would try to trick us sometimes you know, but I could always tell when it was Jeremy or one of the others… I married him a month after I met him.”

 

Dorian touched Addie’s arm gently to get her attention, when Addie turned her attention to her Dorian smiled. “Addie, honey, you were never married.”

 

“Of course I was,” Addie scoffed. “If I wasn’t married then my baby would have been illegitimate… I wasn’t, you know, a floozy or anything. But the way Jeremy looked at me… I just couldn’t help myself,” her eyes twinkled brightly as she focused on Todd. “He was an amazing man, and he didn’t make me feel stupid or crazy. He accepted me, he accepted me for what I was and that was the greatest gift I’d ever gotten at that point.”

 

“So you married Jeremy because you were pregnant with Blair?” Todd asked trying to put the conversation back on track.

 

“No, Blair came later,” Addie said as she shook her head at Todd.

 

“Well then…”

 

“I married Jeremy because I was pregnant with Marcus.”

 

“Who?” Dorian asked in confusion.

 

“Marcus… Blair’s brother.”

 

“Honey… You only ever had Blair,” Dorian said softly.

 

“You’re wrong… don’t try to confuse me Dorrie,” Addie shook her finger at her. “We all got married because we were pregnant. Jeremy and I had Marcus. Paul and Sandra had Michael and Simon and Andrea had Wesley.”

 

Todd opened his envelope, shaking the pictures out he laid them side by side on the bed in front of Addie. Dorian gasping as she got a good look at them. Addie smiled as she saw them.

 

“That’s my Blair,” she pointed at the picture of Blair with Todd. “I have that picture.”

 

“Yes I know,” Todd said as he pointed at the other two. “What about these two?” he asked.

 

“That’s not Blair,” Addie shook her head.

 

“How can you be sure?”

 

“I’m her mother Todd, of course I know which girl is which… It’s the same way that I know that the man here,” she said pointing at the picture of Kylie with her father and brother, “is not my Jeremy. It’s Paul or Simon… probably Paul though because he was the policeman. Simon he was a carpenter and Jeremy, well he dug up bones.”

 

“He was an archeologist?” Todd asked as he stared down at the picture of Blair’s smiling face.

 

“Yes, he was coming home for Blair’s birth when his plane disappeared,” Addie whispered. “That’s when I… well I went crazy again,” she looked up with tears in her eyes. “They took my babies away from me… I never saw Marcus again, but Blair she came to me when she was an adult. She tried to take care of me, but I was to far gone.”

 

“I’m sorry Addie,” Dorian whispered as she wrapped her arms around Addie holding her close.

 

“Do you still have my music box Todd?”

 

“Yes, of course I do.”

 

“Have you figured out the secret of it yet?”

 

“I didn’t know that there was a secret to be found out,” Todd said as he shoved the pictures back into the envelope.

 

“If you find out the secret the rest won’t sound so strange. Blair, she’s like her father. So is her brother. Starr… she won’t be, she won’t be because the boys always come first. They’re the protectors, the guardians,” Addie gripped Todd’s hand in hers. “Don’t be afraid of her when you find it all out, you have to accept her, you have to accept it all. Like I did.”

 

“Addie,” Todd leaned forward pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll call you when I figure the music box out… okay?”

 

“Don’t break it,” she warned. “It’s valuable.”

 

“I know.”

 

 

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

 

“Hi Uncle Paul,” Blair smiled warily as she stared down at his still frame. She hated hospitals, hated them with a red-hot passion.

 

“There’s my girl,” Paul Jensen smiled as he adjusted the controls on the bed so he was sitting upright. “Come sit down.”

 

“I can’t stay long… Josh called with a couple of leads.”

 

“That’s okay, I just wanted to make sure you were okay… How do you feel?” he asked as he stared into her eyes. With her father being gone he kept on eye on her. She looked tired.

 

“I’m better… I had some nightmares last night, but…” she shrugged.

 

“Still no leads on your brother yet?”

 

Blair shook her head. “No, sometimes I think that there was never a brother to begin with.”

 

“There was,” Paul smiled softly. “We blocked Michael and Wesley’s memories of him because we didn’t want them searching for him until they were old enough to understand, your mother…”

 

“Momma went crazy,” Blair sighed. “I wish I could remember him, I wish I could remember my father.”

 

“Someday you’ll meet him, he’s out there someplace wandering and someday he’ll find his way home.”

 

“How can you be so sure?”

 

“Because we’re all tied together, he’s my cousin but more than that he was one of my three. If you were to ask your mother the right questions on the right day she would probably tell he was still alive as well. He was her soulmate, he was bound to her. Just like your Mr. Manning is bound to you.”

 

“Todd is not my soulmate,” Blair said emphatically staring down at her hands.

 

“You know that’s not true,” Paul reached over to her touching her cheek lightly to get her to look back up at him. “Did he know who you were? Or did he believe you when you told him that you were Kylie?”

 

“He didn’t believe me… He knew that I was me,” Blair sighed.

 

“See… If he wasn’t your soulmate, if he wasn’t already bound to you he would have accepted what you said and moved on, but he didn’t, he couldn’t. Because he knew that you were lying to him.”

 

“I don’t know…”

 

“Just think of it this way, he couldn’t be fooled by any of the others… If Darleen had been the one pretending to be Kylie he would have accepted her as Kylie because he would have no reason not to. He’s your soulmate, he’s connected to you. You know this because of…”

 

“Because of Kyle, because Kyle is like me.”

 

“That’s right, if Todd Manning wasn’t the one, then Kyle would never have been born with his powers.”

 

“Can I ask you something Uncle Paul?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“If my first baby had lived. If I hadn’t miscarried… would he… would Starr…”

 

“Would the first baby and your daughter have been the ones?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Yes they would have been, when your son died it reset everything which meant your girl was born just a girl. No talents from our side, but no danger from our side either.”

 

“What about Brendan?”

 

“Mr. Thornhart’s son? No, he would have been normal, no talents either.”

 

“So Kyle is the first… but who’s he protecting?”

 

“He’ll be protecting your next child, your next daughter.”

 

“That would mean that Todd and I would have to reconcile… I don’t know if that’s even possible considering he thinks I’m dead.”

 

“You know he doesn’t believe you’re dead, he thinks Kylie is buried in your grave. He’s probably gotten an order of excavation to try that theory out,” Paul grinned at the shocked expression on Blair’s face.

 

“But if he does that…”

 

“It’s already out of our hands child. Now we just have to sit back and see where the cards fall, see what side everyone chooses to play on.”

 

 

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

 

“Todd? This is Bo Buchanan… you should get down to County Coroners office right now,” Bo said in hushed tones into his cell phone.

 

“Why? What did you find?”

 

“Well you know that idea that you had… about Blair not being dead?”

 

“Yeah… so?”

 

“Well I’m looking at her casket right now and I’m inclined to believe you at this point.”

 

“What? Why?”

 

“Because there is nothing in the casket… it’s empty.”

 

“There’s no body in Blair’s casket? At all?”

 

“Nothing, just a white satin pillow and a stuffed bear.”

 

“I’m on my way.”

 

Bo snapped his phone shut as he walked back over and stared down at the empty casket. He’d had the unfortunate feeling when he rolled out of bed this morning that it was going to be a long day. He should have listened to his instincts.

 

Because it was indeed turning into a long day.

 

 

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

 

Todd looked down at the empty casket. Raising his eyes to Bo’s confused ones he opened his mouth then snapped it shut and looked back down.

 

The casket was empty. He didn’t get it.

 

So did this mean that Kylie Jensen was still alive? And if she was alive why was Blair pretending to be her? Or was Blair really Kylie Jensen? Shaking his head he reached down and picked up the stuffed bear that had been left in the empty casket.

 

Starr had requested that he put this in with her mother. Just in case she got lonely she could snuggle with the stuffed bear. Starr had told him in quite the conspiratorial tone that she had cuddled with it for several days so that her mother would know that it had been hers. Todd hadn’t asked back then why cuddling it would do that.

 

It seemed that he hadn’t asked a lot of pertinent questions back then.

 

“Your boys in blue are sure that the grave wasn’t disturbed?” Todd asked as he turned away leading Bo out of the room.

 

“They’re positive,” Bo said as he sat down behind his desk, watching Todd pace back and forth in front of him he sighed.

 

“I don’t get it,” Todd muttered, linking his hands behind his neck he sat in a chair, leaning back as he stared at the ceiling.

 

“What’s there not to get? Blair faked her death, somehow, with someone else’s assistance… and now she’s pretending to be a FBI agent which I really should report but something’s telling me that I should wait,” Bo mused quietly tapping his fingers against his desk.

 

“What’d you mean?”

 

“I don’t know… I just have this really bad feeling that if I call the FBI office here and tell them our suspicions that it’s going to put Blair and whoever’s been helping her in more danger than I think they already are.”

 

“You think this idiot who attacked Jessie is after her or them?” Todd asked quietly studying Bo’s face as he waited for him to answer.

 

“Don’t play coy with me Manning… I know that the minute you walked out of here after you initially met her that you had Brigg’s dig up whatever you could find… You probably found out exactly what I did.”

 

“And what would that be exactly?”

 

“You know that Carlos, the man the FBI is saying attacked Jessie is the same man that attacked and killed Blair. The same man that attacked Kylie Jensen… and you know that Kylie Jensen would had to have been a dead ringer for Blair in order for them to pull off this switcheroo they did…. The only thing I don’t get is the death… did they fake it, or is Kylie Jensen really dead.”

 

“That seems to be the million dollar question right now,” Todd said looking down at the bear he was clenching in his hands.

 

And it was one question that he was determined to answer.

 

Soon.

 

 

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

 

Blair walked down the aisle of the hallway. She had left her uncle’s room an hour earlier but she had hesitated to come here. Uncertain if Carlos or Todd was following her she had sat in the waiting room thinking. Waiting for a sign. Waiting for one of them to pop out of the woodwork and threaten her.

 

Finally she had laughed at herself. She was a psychic. If one of them was lying in wait she would have sensed it.

 

Especially Todd. Just being in the same room as him back in Llanview had caused her to almost have a meltdown. No he wasn’t here, not yet anyway. Neither was Carlos.

 

No Todd was still back in Llanview uncovering secrets. But she knew that he’d be here soon. Possibly even by the end of the week unless he got distracted.

 

And Carlos was stalking his next victim. She had a feeling the next one would be in Iowa. She didn’t know why. Maybe because it was one of four states that she hadn’t visited yet.

 

So now she was walking silently down the hallway. Learning to walk silently was one of her first lessons when she had taken Kylie’s place. Michael had worked with her for days until she had it perfected. Now it was just habit.

 

Pulling her badge out of her pocket she waved it at the guard on duty and then hung the lanyard around her neck. If she was seen without the badge on her person, in clear view the guards had orders to shoot on sight.

 

She’d never been shot, she didn’t want to start new trends now. Especially not when they were near the end of all this.

 

The badge swaying against her chest was also a key and when she got to a closed door she only hesitated for a second. Just long enough to press one hand against the door as she reached out with her mind… and to her disappointment felt nothing. Sighing heavily she lifted her badge, inserting it into the slot on the wall, pressing her hand against the illuminated screen. All the while thinking that she’d never known Michael to be wrong. He’d said everyone had felt it. Had he conveniently forgotten about her?

 

She paused as she waited for the computer to verify her identity and then the door lock clicked softly and swung open. After she entered she pressed a button on the wall and the door closed behind her. She would have to re-insert her badge and have her prints taken again in order to get out. Until then she was securely locked in the room. Probably safer than she had been in years.

 

She waited for her eyes to get adjusted to the lights before she walked to the lone bed in the room. She could make out the still form on the bed. She could hear the constant beeps from the machines struggling to keep her alive as she walked up to the bed.

 

Reaching out a steady hand she linked fingers with the woman on the bed. Staring at her face as she debated what to do. She always came here when she had a problem. Always bounced ideas off the still form, sometimes she would walk in confused and walk out with the answers. But she never said a word. Never opened her eyes.

 

Sometimes Blair thought she never would.

 

When she had first come here she had talked about Todd non-stop. Talked about missing him. About missing her daughter. Talked about her sadness that she was keeping her son from his father. It helped that she had an impartial judge to mistakes that she had made.

 

“Kylie… I have a problem…”

 

 

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

 

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