Fanfic: B&S episode 706: part 3/4
Season 7 - Episode 06 - Rescue me
By Marea67
About: Brothers & Sisters
Rate: G
Disclaimer: I don’t own Brothers & Sisters - written with love, not for money.
Summary: Ingredients: Take a couple of Walkers, add a few Wandells, a pinch of Holden and a Caplan formerly known as Harper, a dash of Altamirano and Whitley, a teaspoon of Byrolt, Paresa and Salazar and (for added flavor only) a Barry&McCallister. Mix and shake…and… watch it explode.
Warning: It is my very own season 7, you guys! Go with it! ;) Don’t complain! If YOU can do better, post your own story! (I dare you!)
*****
“So, are you going?” Justin asks straight out.
“Yes.” Tommy replies firmly, before adding less firmly “At least … I think so…”
“You were very shaken up when you came home, the last time you went.” Justin points out, putting his coffee on the table next to Tommy’s cup.
“Well, that’s not so strange. It was the second time I saw Julia since the whole kidnap thing started and … I didn’t know what to expect…. The first time she barely spoken a word to me. Only asked me about Elizabeth and if she was doing alright in school. I told her that Elizabeth had been shaken up, but that she seemed back to being her normal self.”
“What happened the second time?” Justin asks and, realizing that it might be painful for his brother to discuss it, he adds. “If you want to talk about it?”
“Yes. I can talk. Kevin and Scotty, but mostly Kevin, serve as my shrinks these days. I talk a lot…
It was weird. We were allowed to sit at a table and talk. She’s still under observation, because she has these severe mood-swings, but I hadn’t realized how bad they were. Our conversation started carefully. She asked about Elizabeth, not Billy. But the doctor had told me not to discuss Billy unless Julia did, so… I was just answering questions and suddenly she says:”
“It’s all your fault, you know that, don’t you?” She asks…
“I don’t understand what you mean?”
“You left me.. Again!” She accuses. Tommy puts his hands in his lap, under the table, to make sure that she doesn’t see his hands shake.
“I had to go to work, Julia, I thought we were getting out lives back on track.” He says.
“No. Then. Last year. You left. You were so pathetic… Your jealousy over Kevin was so stupid.”
“I know that.” Tommy’s voice is even.
“It’s not his fault that he’s twice the man that you pretend to be.” Julia lashes out. Tommy’s hands ball into fists under the table.
“I know that too.” Tommy’s voice is still even. His calm words seem to take Julia by surprise, but it doesn’t last long.
“And you were the one who wanted that …. thing!”
“What thing?”
“That boy.”
“Billy?”
“What else?” Tommy is unpleasantly surprised by the way Julia refers to Billy as a ‘thing’ and that she uses words like ‘that’ and ‘what’, as if he’s not a real human being to her. It sounds all very vicious.
“I thought we discussed this….?”
“No! You told me!” Julia’s voice becomes even more shrill.
“Julia, we talked about this. We discussed our options. We both agreed.” Tommy’s speaks slowly and he articulates his words. “We both did. I believed that it was our choice. I’m sorry, if you felt that I pushed into something, but … I didn’t. Not intentionally anyway..”
Guilt starts to take over. Had he pushed her? Had here perhaps not given her enough room to make a choice of her own? Would she have preferred to give Billy away for adoption?
“I can’t remember that you said that you would have preferred him to be adopted by someone else.” He keeps his voice as flat as possible, knowing that the mere suggestion that he might criticize her, will upset her.
“I didn’t want him to get adopted.” She says between clenched teeth.
“What did you want?”
“I didn’t want him here at all. I just wanted him gone. Dead. Gone!” She jumps up. “I didn’t want that thing growing inside of me. I hated it! And I hated him! I just wanted him gone!”
There is so much anger and venom in her words that Tommy can no longer hold his own tongue.
“He’s just a baby! He didn’t do anything wrong! He’s just as much a victim as you are? If you didn’t want him, why didn’t you say so? Why did you let me to love him? I cannot give him up.
Not now. Not now that he’s been with me all along. I was prepared to give him up, if you wanted to have him adopted, right after he was born. … But I can’t do that now… I love him.” Tommy whispers in total shock, unable to see how he can bridge this difference between his standpoint and hers.
“I never want to see him again.” She says.
“He’s your son.”
“No… No, he’s not. I tried….” Julia is more calm now. “I really tried. I kept telling myself that it wasn’t his fault anymore than it was mine. But I couldn’t get over it. I loathe to look at him and remember my feelings. I cannot put what happened to me behind me… Every time I looked at him, it came back to me…. I just want him gone…”
“What do you want me to do? Bring him to the animal-shelter? He’s our son!”
“Perhaps…. Perhaps Kevin and Scotty would be interested in having him? Or Kitty. Or Justin…. Tyler liked him.” Julia replies with a hopeful look on her face.
“Are you insane?... No… I’m not even going to think about this. It’s too absurd for words.” Tommy shakes his head.
“I never want to see him again.” Julia emphasizes.
“It’s too late. We love him. My family. Our daughter… We love that little baby.”
“I don’t. And I never will.” Julia replies coldly.
“I’m …. I’m sorry… I don’t know what to say…” Tommy gives her a hopeless glance. She shrugs and stares at the table between them. She distractedly plays with her hands.
“I’m evil, aren’t I?” She suddenly asks. Tommy doesn’t know what to answer. “I’m an awful mother. I know. I gave birth to that boy. I know that too. I … I can’t love him. I just can’t. Every time I see him, I’m back… In the half-dark… Afraid… I cannot put it behind me when he’s there, right in my face, to remind me of the hell I’ve been in.
I tried, Tommy, I tried to be good person. I tried to be logical and practical. A part of me just knows that the boy is not responsible, but just a consequence… but … I can’t forget… I just can’t.”
She looks at Tommy, hoping to find a solution in him, but, after some thinking about his next action, Tommy slowly gets up.
“I’m sorry too, but I’m not giving up Billy. That is something that I just cannot do… I sincerely hope that the people here can help you… but, right not… I can’t….”
Tommy looks up at Justin.
“I’ve grown to love that kid. He’s such a cute little thing. I can’t turn my back on him. I want to be there for him and for Elizabeth … and for Julia too.
“But those things are not compatible.” Justin says.
“I’m aware of that. And, at this moment, I don’t know what to do… I really don’t.” Tommy pours them another drink.
“Can I ask you another question. Something that may be not my business?”
“When did that ever stop a Walker?” Tommy grins.
“Has Elizabeth talked to you at all about the kidnap? It was all very dramatic and perhaps even traumatic and …. It would be good if she had expressed herself.”
“Not that I know of. I know that I talked a little bit with her. Kevin and Scotty did as well. Maybe that was enough for her. We also told her teachers, just in case.”
“So, she’s moving on like nothing happened?” Justin asks flabbergasted.
“I know, it’s weird, but at the same time, I can’t put more pressure on her to discuss it, if this is the way she wants to deal with it… She will talk when the time is ready.” Tommy shrugs and Justin mouth drops.
“How can you be so sure of that?” He asks, wondering how Tommy can be seemingly so cold to the fact. He can see Tommy wince, as if answering the question is something painful for him to do… and it is.
“Because that is what Kevin would do….” He sighs. "Speaking of trauma's... How are you and Dan doing after the attack last time?"
"I'm pretty much over it, but Dan hasn't been back to work yet. I now work with someone else, but he's not half as much fun to work with. He hardly says a word to me all day... Days can be very long then."
"I hope you can get Dan back soon. I like him." Tommy says kindly.
"I hope so too. I can't wait!" But when Justin puts his drink down, Tommy can see the concerned look on Justin's face and he realizes that Dan's problems might be bigger than Justin wants to tell.
*****
“Miss Altamirano, I’m at a loss.” The private investigator, Mr Brooks, says. “I can’t seem to catch your thief, regardless of what I leave behind and where. I’ve booked different rooms, under different names, with different disguises, but somehow… nobody wants to steal my watch, my money, or the necklace I left dangling from the bathroom-mirror. Even a 100-dollar bill that I had left on the ground was put nicely put on the table with a note attached to it that they found it on the floor.”
“That is what we don’t get either…” Tyler sighs. “We have had the same staff for a long time and so far never any real issues. You’ve done background checks on them, but no one seemed to be in financial need and no one was suddenly in possession of more money than usual. Did those who complained just lose their jewelry? Were they trying to fool us? I don’t believe that either. Some of them have been regular guests for years…”
Tyler gives Mr Brooks a desperate look.
“Now what? What other resources do I have?” Mr Brooks looks at the tip of his shoes.
“I don’t know. I could stay here a bit longer, but at this point I can’t see what good it would do. You either have the most honest chamber-maids or … they know who I am and what I’m doing here.”
“But we haven’t told anyone. Aside from Cleo and me no one knows who you are… That would defeat the purpose of your stay here.”
“And I’ve done background checks on even you and Cleo…. I see no reason why either of you would steal either….” Mr Brooks declares and for a moment Tyler isn’t sure if she should be offended or happy that she’s not a suspect.
“I’m sorry. But it does happen that managers are the offenders, trying to put the blame on their employees.”
“Well, it’s only natural, I suppose, that you would consider the possibility that it would be either Cleo or me..” Tyler has to recognize. “What do I do now? Do I have a thief amongst my people or are my guests trying to make a few bucks?”
“At this point I have no idea.” Mr Brooks has to admit.
*****
“Brody!” Nora wraps her arms around him, surprised to see him on her doorstep, even though the sound of his motor-home had given away that he was parking in front of her house.
“It’s good to hold you again.” Brody kisses Nora again until they are both out of breath.
He enters the hallway and follows Nora to her kitchen, where she immediately begins to make coffee. He looks around.
“What is all that paperwork?” He asks.
“Stuff. About William.” Nora tries to shrug casually. Brody frowns.
“Back to William, huh?” He says.
“Brody….” Nora sighs.
“I know. I know. I’m trying….” Brody says.
“Me too.” Nora answers abruptly.
He has a look at all the different piles on invoices, letters and notes.
“What do you need these for?” He eventually asks, unable to control his curiosity any longer. Nora picks up another batch of papers in various sizes and starts to split up them up over the different stacks.
“Good question. I don’t know.. I have no idea what I’m looking for…. I decided to clean up the attic and throw away a lot of old stuff, that used to belong to William. As I looked through them I found out a bit more about his family…. Things I never knew…”
“More secrets? There’s a surprise!” Brody says sarcastically.
“Brody, please, I found out that William’s father died after a fall, that may or may not have been caused by William…. His only rescue at the time was a statement made by a certain Dennis York, the same Dennis York who then worked for William for years, but also the same who ended up in prison thanks to William.
The same Dennis York who tried to steal Narrow Lake from us… I thought that, with so much history between them, I should talk to Dennis. He did say that he lied to the police about seeing William outside when his father fell… but he can’t swear that William killed his old man…”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he had.” Brody says and this time it’s Nora who frowns.
“I disagree. I cannot imagine William killing his dad…. Not in cold blood…”
“He’s a liar, a cheater and an embezzler…”
“It doesn’t make him a murderer.” Nora can’t help but defend William.
“I wouldn’t put it past him. Look at what he did to us. If there was something William Walker wanted, he’d make damn sure that he’d get it.”
“I can’t put the full blame on William. I could have decided to take a chance and raise Sarah by myself. It wouldn’t have been easy, but times were changing. I’m sure mom would have supported me. She never liked William much. Or you. …
No, if we would be honest with ourselves, you and I would have to admit that we were just as much to blame as William was. I should have asked you to stay. You should have told me that you both had the same blood-type, making it impossible to establish who Sarah’s father was… We’ve played our own parts. We weren’t innocent bystanders.”
“I beg to differ.”
“But we weren’t!” Nora says. “If William got away with so much, it is because we enabled him to do so. And it doesn’t alter the fact that I want to know if he was responsible for his father’s death.”
“Nora, forget about him.”
“I can’t. I keep finding skeleton after skeleton, no matter where I look. They are buried everywhere.”
“Stop digging for them…. Let William rest in peace and come with me. I’ll take you far away from any skeleton that wishes to haunt you.” Brody tries.
“But…” Nora looks at all the papers on her kitchen-table.
“You’re obsessed with him!” Brody says.
“I’m not obsessed, just curious.”
“You can’t let him go.”
“He was my husband…”
“A husband you apparently never really knew. And he still controls your life… Let him go..”
“I can’t.” Nora answers.
“Nora, I came here to make things right with you and with Sarah. I want to take you away, have fun with you and just enjoy being with you and your family. I didn’t come here to fight over a dead man. I can’t compete with him.”
“Then why are you trying so hard?” Nora answers with a loving smile.
“I want you to love me.”
“I do.” She says, placing her hand on his cheek, so she can get on the tip of her toes to kiss him, but before she can kiss him, Brody softly pushes her away.
“I want you to be exclusively mine. I’m tired of sharing you with William.”
“I was married to him for nearly 40 years! He’s the father of my children. How am I supposed to separate that part of my life from the rest of my life?” Nora asks. Brody has no answer.
“This isn’t going anywhere… I’m leaving.”
“You just got here!” Nora says angrily.
“Yes. I’ll crash at Sarah’s place.” Brody sighs. “I know that I’m doing this wrong, but I notice that every time that I think that you have dealt with him, he’s back and… I don’t want to fight with you. I love you and I want you to be part of my life, in this present day. And not stuck in the past. With some dead guy.
He was your husband for 40 years. I can’t erase that. I’m not trying to, but, right now, today, at this hour, he’s dead. Let him rest in peace…. Anyway… you have to figure this out for yourself… So … I’m out of here.” He kisses Nora gently and, stunned, Nora watches him walk away again.
At this point she’s not even sure if she wants him to come back or if she wants him to stay. She looks at the door through which Brody just left and then she looks at the all the papers on her kitchen-table. Her past. Her future… Or maybe both? Or neither?
*****
End of part 3/4
**** COMMERCIAL BREAK****
By Marea67
About: Brothers & Sisters
Rate: G
Disclaimer: I don’t own Brothers & Sisters - written with love, not for money.
Summary: Ingredients: Take a couple of Walkers, add a few Wandells, a pinch of Holden and a Caplan formerly known as Harper, a dash of Altamirano and Whitley, a teaspoon of Byrolt, Paresa and Salazar and (for added flavor only) a Barry&McCallister. Mix and shake…and… watch it explode.
Warning: It is my very own season 7, you guys! Go with it! ;) Don’t complain! If YOU can do better, post your own story! (I dare you!)
*****
“So, are you going?” Justin asks straight out.
“Yes.” Tommy replies firmly, before adding less firmly “At least … I think so…”
“You were very shaken up when you came home, the last time you went.” Justin points out, putting his coffee on the table next to Tommy’s cup.
“Well, that’s not so strange. It was the second time I saw Julia since the whole kidnap thing started and … I didn’t know what to expect…. The first time she barely spoken a word to me. Only asked me about Elizabeth and if she was doing alright in school. I told her that Elizabeth had been shaken up, but that she seemed back to being her normal self.”
“What happened the second time?” Justin asks and, realizing that it might be painful for his brother to discuss it, he adds. “If you want to talk about it?”
“Yes. I can talk. Kevin and Scotty, but mostly Kevin, serve as my shrinks these days. I talk a lot…
It was weird. We were allowed to sit at a table and talk. She’s still under observation, because she has these severe mood-swings, but I hadn’t realized how bad they were. Our conversation started carefully. She asked about Elizabeth, not Billy. But the doctor had told me not to discuss Billy unless Julia did, so… I was just answering questions and suddenly she says:”
“It’s all your fault, you know that, don’t you?” She asks…
“I don’t understand what you mean?”
“You left me.. Again!” She accuses. Tommy puts his hands in his lap, under the table, to make sure that she doesn’t see his hands shake.
“I had to go to work, Julia, I thought we were getting out lives back on track.” He says.
“No. Then. Last year. You left. You were so pathetic… Your jealousy over Kevin was so stupid.”
“I know that.” Tommy’s voice is even.
“It’s not his fault that he’s twice the man that you pretend to be.” Julia lashes out. Tommy’s hands ball into fists under the table.
“I know that too.” Tommy’s voice is still even. His calm words seem to take Julia by surprise, but it doesn’t last long.
“And you were the one who wanted that …. thing!”
“What thing?”
“That boy.”
“Billy?”
“What else?” Tommy is unpleasantly surprised by the way Julia refers to Billy as a ‘thing’ and that she uses words like ‘that’ and ‘what’, as if he’s not a real human being to her. It sounds all very vicious.
“I thought we discussed this….?”
“No! You told me!” Julia’s voice becomes even more shrill.
“Julia, we talked about this. We discussed our options. We both agreed.” Tommy’s speaks slowly and he articulates his words. “We both did. I believed that it was our choice. I’m sorry, if you felt that I pushed into something, but … I didn’t. Not intentionally anyway..”
Guilt starts to take over. Had he pushed her? Had here perhaps not given her enough room to make a choice of her own? Would she have preferred to give Billy away for adoption?
“I can’t remember that you said that you would have preferred him to be adopted by someone else.” He keeps his voice as flat as possible, knowing that the mere suggestion that he might criticize her, will upset her.
“I didn’t want him to get adopted.” She says between clenched teeth.
“What did you want?”
“I didn’t want him here at all. I just wanted him gone. Dead. Gone!” She jumps up. “I didn’t want that thing growing inside of me. I hated it! And I hated him! I just wanted him gone!”
There is so much anger and venom in her words that Tommy can no longer hold his own tongue.
“He’s just a baby! He didn’t do anything wrong! He’s just as much a victim as you are? If you didn’t want him, why didn’t you say so? Why did you let me to love him? I cannot give him up.
Not now. Not now that he’s been with me all along. I was prepared to give him up, if you wanted to have him adopted, right after he was born. … But I can’t do that now… I love him.” Tommy whispers in total shock, unable to see how he can bridge this difference between his standpoint and hers.
“I never want to see him again.” She says.
“He’s your son.”
“No… No, he’s not. I tried….” Julia is more calm now. “I really tried. I kept telling myself that it wasn’t his fault anymore than it was mine. But I couldn’t get over it. I loathe to look at him and remember my feelings. I cannot put what happened to me behind me… Every time I looked at him, it came back to me…. I just want him gone…”
“What do you want me to do? Bring him to the animal-shelter? He’s our son!”
“Perhaps…. Perhaps Kevin and Scotty would be interested in having him? Or Kitty. Or Justin…. Tyler liked him.” Julia replies with a hopeful look on her face.
“Are you insane?... No… I’m not even going to think about this. It’s too absurd for words.” Tommy shakes his head.
“I never want to see him again.” Julia emphasizes.
“It’s too late. We love him. My family. Our daughter… We love that little baby.”
“I don’t. And I never will.” Julia replies coldly.
“I’m …. I’m sorry… I don’t know what to say…” Tommy gives her a hopeless glance. She shrugs and stares at the table between them. She distractedly plays with her hands.
“I’m evil, aren’t I?” She suddenly asks. Tommy doesn’t know what to answer. “I’m an awful mother. I know. I gave birth to that boy. I know that too. I … I can’t love him. I just can’t. Every time I see him, I’m back… In the half-dark… Afraid… I cannot put it behind me when he’s there, right in my face, to remind me of the hell I’ve been in.
I tried, Tommy, I tried to be good person. I tried to be logical and practical. A part of me just knows that the boy is not responsible, but just a consequence… but … I can’t forget… I just can’t.”
She looks at Tommy, hoping to find a solution in him, but, after some thinking about his next action, Tommy slowly gets up.
“I’m sorry too, but I’m not giving up Billy. That is something that I just cannot do… I sincerely hope that the people here can help you… but, right not… I can’t….”
Tommy looks up at Justin.
“I’ve grown to love that kid. He’s such a cute little thing. I can’t turn my back on him. I want to be there for him and for Elizabeth … and for Julia too.
“But those things are not compatible.” Justin says.
“I’m aware of that. And, at this moment, I don’t know what to do… I really don’t.” Tommy pours them another drink.
“Can I ask you another question. Something that may be not my business?”
“When did that ever stop a Walker?” Tommy grins.
“Has Elizabeth talked to you at all about the kidnap? It was all very dramatic and perhaps even traumatic and …. It would be good if she had expressed herself.”
“Not that I know of. I know that I talked a little bit with her. Kevin and Scotty did as well. Maybe that was enough for her. We also told her teachers, just in case.”
“So, she’s moving on like nothing happened?” Justin asks flabbergasted.
“I know, it’s weird, but at the same time, I can’t put more pressure on her to discuss it, if this is the way she wants to deal with it… She will talk when the time is ready.” Tommy shrugs and Justin mouth drops.
“How can you be so sure of that?” He asks, wondering how Tommy can be seemingly so cold to the fact. He can see Tommy wince, as if answering the question is something painful for him to do… and it is.
“Because that is what Kevin would do….” He sighs. "Speaking of trauma's... How are you and Dan doing after the attack last time?"
"I'm pretty much over it, but Dan hasn't been back to work yet. I now work with someone else, but he's not half as much fun to work with. He hardly says a word to me all day... Days can be very long then."
"I hope you can get Dan back soon. I like him." Tommy says kindly.
"I hope so too. I can't wait!" But when Justin puts his drink down, Tommy can see the concerned look on Justin's face and he realizes that Dan's problems might be bigger than Justin wants to tell.
*****
“Miss Altamirano, I’m at a loss.” The private investigator, Mr Brooks, says. “I can’t seem to catch your thief, regardless of what I leave behind and where. I’ve booked different rooms, under different names, with different disguises, but somehow… nobody wants to steal my watch, my money, or the necklace I left dangling from the bathroom-mirror. Even a 100-dollar bill that I had left on the ground was put nicely put on the table with a note attached to it that they found it on the floor.”
“That is what we don’t get either…” Tyler sighs. “We have had the same staff for a long time and so far never any real issues. You’ve done background checks on them, but no one seemed to be in financial need and no one was suddenly in possession of more money than usual. Did those who complained just lose their jewelry? Were they trying to fool us? I don’t believe that either. Some of them have been regular guests for years…”
Tyler gives Mr Brooks a desperate look.
“Now what? What other resources do I have?” Mr Brooks looks at the tip of his shoes.
“I don’t know. I could stay here a bit longer, but at this point I can’t see what good it would do. You either have the most honest chamber-maids or … they know who I am and what I’m doing here.”
“But we haven’t told anyone. Aside from Cleo and me no one knows who you are… That would defeat the purpose of your stay here.”
“And I’ve done background checks on even you and Cleo…. I see no reason why either of you would steal either….” Mr Brooks declares and for a moment Tyler isn’t sure if she should be offended or happy that she’s not a suspect.
“I’m sorry. But it does happen that managers are the offenders, trying to put the blame on their employees.”
“Well, it’s only natural, I suppose, that you would consider the possibility that it would be either Cleo or me..” Tyler has to recognize. “What do I do now? Do I have a thief amongst my people or are my guests trying to make a few bucks?”
“At this point I have no idea.” Mr Brooks has to admit.
*****
“Brody!” Nora wraps her arms around him, surprised to see him on her doorstep, even though the sound of his motor-home had given away that he was parking in front of her house.
“It’s good to hold you again.” Brody kisses Nora again until they are both out of breath.
He enters the hallway and follows Nora to her kitchen, where she immediately begins to make coffee. He looks around.
“What is all that paperwork?” He asks.
“Stuff. About William.” Nora tries to shrug casually. Brody frowns.
“Back to William, huh?” He says.
“Brody….” Nora sighs.
“I know. I know. I’m trying….” Brody says.
“Me too.” Nora answers abruptly.
He has a look at all the different piles on invoices, letters and notes.
“What do you need these for?” He eventually asks, unable to control his curiosity any longer. Nora picks up another batch of papers in various sizes and starts to split up them up over the different stacks.
“Good question. I don’t know.. I have no idea what I’m looking for…. I decided to clean up the attic and throw away a lot of old stuff, that used to belong to William. As I looked through them I found out a bit more about his family…. Things I never knew…”
“More secrets? There’s a surprise!” Brody says sarcastically.
“Brody, please, I found out that William’s father died after a fall, that may or may not have been caused by William…. His only rescue at the time was a statement made by a certain Dennis York, the same Dennis York who then worked for William for years, but also the same who ended up in prison thanks to William.
The same Dennis York who tried to steal Narrow Lake from us… I thought that, with so much history between them, I should talk to Dennis. He did say that he lied to the police about seeing William outside when his father fell… but he can’t swear that William killed his old man…”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he had.” Brody says and this time it’s Nora who frowns.
“I disagree. I cannot imagine William killing his dad…. Not in cold blood…”
“He’s a liar, a cheater and an embezzler…”
“It doesn’t make him a murderer.” Nora can’t help but defend William.
“I wouldn’t put it past him. Look at what he did to us. If there was something William Walker wanted, he’d make damn sure that he’d get it.”
“I can’t put the full blame on William. I could have decided to take a chance and raise Sarah by myself. It wouldn’t have been easy, but times were changing. I’m sure mom would have supported me. She never liked William much. Or you. …
No, if we would be honest with ourselves, you and I would have to admit that we were just as much to blame as William was. I should have asked you to stay. You should have told me that you both had the same blood-type, making it impossible to establish who Sarah’s father was… We’ve played our own parts. We weren’t innocent bystanders.”
“I beg to differ.”
“But we weren’t!” Nora says. “If William got away with so much, it is because we enabled him to do so. And it doesn’t alter the fact that I want to know if he was responsible for his father’s death.”
“Nora, forget about him.”
“I can’t. I keep finding skeleton after skeleton, no matter where I look. They are buried everywhere.”
“Stop digging for them…. Let William rest in peace and come with me. I’ll take you far away from any skeleton that wishes to haunt you.” Brody tries.
“But…” Nora looks at all the papers on her kitchen-table.
“You’re obsessed with him!” Brody says.
“I’m not obsessed, just curious.”
“You can’t let him go.”
“He was my husband…”
“A husband you apparently never really knew. And he still controls your life… Let him go..”
“I can’t.” Nora answers.
“Nora, I came here to make things right with you and with Sarah. I want to take you away, have fun with you and just enjoy being with you and your family. I didn’t come here to fight over a dead man. I can’t compete with him.”
“Then why are you trying so hard?” Nora answers with a loving smile.
“I want you to love me.”
“I do.” She says, placing her hand on his cheek, so she can get on the tip of her toes to kiss him, but before she can kiss him, Brody softly pushes her away.
“I want you to be exclusively mine. I’m tired of sharing you with William.”
“I was married to him for nearly 40 years! He’s the father of my children. How am I supposed to separate that part of my life from the rest of my life?” Nora asks. Brody has no answer.
“This isn’t going anywhere… I’m leaving.”
“You just got here!” Nora says angrily.
“Yes. I’ll crash at Sarah’s place.” Brody sighs. “I know that I’m doing this wrong, but I notice that every time that I think that you have dealt with him, he’s back and… I don’t want to fight with you. I love you and I want you to be part of my life, in this present day. And not stuck in the past. With some dead guy.
He was your husband for 40 years. I can’t erase that. I’m not trying to, but, right now, today, at this hour, he’s dead. Let him rest in peace…. Anyway… you have to figure this out for yourself… So … I’m out of here.” He kisses Nora gently and, stunned, Nora watches him walk away again.
At this point she’s not even sure if she wants him to come back or if she wants him to stay. She looks at the door through which Brody just left and then she looks at the all the papers on her kitchen-table. Her past. Her future… Or maybe both? Or neither?
*****
End of part 3/4
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