Previously…
– Jason visited Natalie and Spencer on Christmas day to tell them that he would no longer pursue custody of Peter.
– Molly told Paula that she is pregnant with Brent’s baby.
– News of Loretta Ragan’s arrival in town spread to the shocked Fishers. Tim discussed with Brent the possibility of neutralizing Loretta as quickly as possible.
– After his fall out the window, Jake lapsed into a coma. A doctor approached Mia and Marcus to tell them that Jake’s test results were troubling.

The sound of the heavy door closing echoes throughout the vast space. It has been quite some time since Tim Fisher was at Edge of Winter Arena, and he pauses to take it in: the high, high ceiling; the orange glow of the digits on the scoreboard; the buzz of the Zamboni as it refreshes the sheet of white ice. Then he makes his way around the end of the rink itself and climbs the stairs that lead to the lofted second story. At the open door to the admin office, he stops a moment before knocking.

His younger brother looks up from the computer and reacts with surprise at the sight of Tim in the doorway.

“Hey,” Tim says. “You have a few minutes?”

Jason looks wary even as he motions for Tim to take a seat. “Of course. Yeah.”

A thick, awkward tension blankets them as Tim sits down across the desk from Jason.

“Where’s Tempest?” Tim asks, gesturing toward the unoccupied desk on the other side of the large room.

“She has a meeting with one of the elementary schools about a partnership. She’s really taking a lot of initiative here. It’s awesome.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Yeah.”

The awkwardness settles again, sweeping aside the small talk. Tim looks his brother in the eyes.

“I’m glad we have some time to talk, then,” he says. “I know things have been kind of rocky between us.”

Jason holds up his palms in a show of surrender. “If you came to lecture me about Peter, you can save it. I told Spencer and Natalie that I’m not filing any more appeals. It isn’t good for me, and it isn’t good for Peter.”

“Spencer told me. That’s why I’m here: I wanted to thank you.”

Over the desk, Jason shoots him a dubious look.

“I’m serious,” Tim continues. “I can only imagine how hard a decision that was for you — is for you. And the fact that you were able to look at what’s best for Peter right now, even if it hurts… that’s why you’re such a good father and a good man.” 

Several seconds tick by as Jason absorbs that.

“And I’m sorry things have been so tense,” Tim adds. “I never want to fight with you. The position I’ve been in, being Spencer’s dad and Peter’s grandfather and your brother — it’s been impossible. So I can only imagine how you’ve felt.”

“Thank you,” Jason says at last. “Just hearing you say that…”

“It isn’t fair what Natalie put you through. I know that. We all do.”

Jason shakes his head mournfully. “I can’t believe I’ll never get to be his dad again. And that someone else will.”

“I know. That has to hurt so badly. But I wanted to come here and say that I’m sorry if I did anything to make that worse at any point.”

Another pause stretches out before Jason finally offers a sincere attempt at a smile. “Thanks, Tim. And I know you got screwed over, too. Your first grandkid, and you didn’t even know for two years.”

“Don’t think I’m okay with anything that Natalie did. She somehow manages to be a decent mother, but the way she handled everything about Peter’s paternity…”

“What about drugging Alex and me?” Jason asks, the intensity in his voice spiking. “I might not be taking them on in court anymore, but I’m not just letting that go. Whether it was her, or Spencer, or Elly, or some combination of them–”

“I don’t think it was any of them,” Tim says.

“What? We have test results proving someone drugged Alex.”

“Right. And I know exactly who was behind that.”

“Renal failure?”

“Yeah,” Mia Davich Gray says, pursing her lips as she leans against a white wall in the hallway of the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. “They said the fall damaged both his kidneys, and the trauma was so severe…”

“Wow. I’m so sorry,” Sarah Fisher Gray tells her sister-in-law. “That’s… it’s horrible.”

Mia’s only response is an exaggerated nod. Her agony is visible in the lines on her face and the bags underneath her eyes — the results of how little rest she has been able to get since Jake was hospitalized. Overhead, a tinny voice pages a doctor to the ICU nurses’ station via intercom.

“Jake’s strong,” Sarah says. “He’s relatively young, he’s healthy, and it’s the result of an accident. That has to make him a good candidate for donation, right?”

“They say he is. They’re putting him on the list. Still, with waiting, you never know…” Mia breathes in deeply through her nostrils and holds the breath in. “They’ve got him on dialysis, but between that and the coma…”

Sarah cringes at the unspoken inference.

“How are you?” she asks. “What can I do for you?”

“Nothing. I don’t know. I appreciate you coming by. I’m just trying to keep things as normal as possible for Marcus.”

“Because you’re a great mom. But you need to take care of yourself, too. If you want to go home and shower, or eat, or take a real nap — let me stay with Jake for a while.”

Gratitude flickers in Mia’s eyes. “Thanks, Sarah. Really. I just… It’s wild. One minute, Jake was going upstairs to watch football while I got dinner ready, and then he was lying on the driveway… It doesn’t make sense.”

Both women shudder at the thought of Jake’s fall.

“I just want to know how this happened,” Mia says. “I know it won’t change anything, but knowing how he wound up like this…”

“It was an accidents. Accidents don’t make sense.”

Mia’s silence drags on. Sarah studies her, first in confusion and then in horror, as something dawns on her.

“Oh my god,” Sarah says. “You don’t really think that Matt pushed Jake, do you?”

With a white dishcloth slung over his shoulder, Travis Fisher winds his way through the busy kitchen of Bill’s on the Pier, expertly avoiding the bodies, flames, and equipment that are running at full force. He reaches the small office in the back and finds the door open.

“Hey, Uncle Matt,” he says as he stops in the doorway. “Question.”

Matt Gray looks up from the paperwork on the desk and removes his reading glasses. “What’s up?”

“Someone ordered the filet of sole, but I went to grab it, and–”

“Crap,” Matt says, throwing back his head. “I forgot to put it on the order.”

“Oh.” Travis takes this in, thrown by the uncharacteristic oversight. Normally Matt keeps the restaurant running so smoothly that it would be easy to forget how much work it actually takes. “I’ll tell them we’re out. I can do the same thing with swordfish, basically.”

“Thanks, Travis. Sorry about that.”

“All good.” Travis is about to turn on his heels and return to his work in the kitchen, but something causes him to linger another moment. “How are you holding up?”

Matt regards him, first with surprise and then with something resembling relief.

“It’s been rough,” he admits.

“No word on your brother?”

Matt shakes his head. “Sarah said she was going by the hospital today, so she’ll have updates. I need to go by later.”

“It must’ve been so effing scary seeing him fall like that.”

“Didn’t even seem real. Still doesn’t. I keep thinking, if I’d left him alone, if I hadn’t gone over there to try and fix things that day…”

“You wanted to patch things up with him. That doesn’t make you responsible for what happened to him.”

“I keep telling myself that, but it’s not sinking in,” Matt says. “Almost feels wrong to let myself off the hook like that.”

“Blaming yourself won’t make him better.”

“I know.” Matt fiddles with one arm of the glasses. “Still hard not to. Jake and I, we were so good for so long — but ever since Marcus and Tori got into that car crash, it’s like every bad thing he ever thought about me jumped right to the front of the line. Makes me wonder if he was just playing nice all these years.”

“I doubt that. He was worried when things didn’t look good for Marcus, and he took it out on you.”

“And I found out he’s been holding onto a lot of crap for a lot of years. Stuff I thought we worked past.” After dwelling on the thought for a few more seconds, Matt sets down the glasses on the desk. “Anyway, you have better things to do than be my shrink.”

“Any time. For real.”

Matt grins. “Thanks. Now get back out there and work some magic with that swordfish. I’m put in the order for the sole.”

“I’m on it,” Travis says, and then he dips out of the doorway and heads back through the kitchen to his post.

In the office, Matt rubs the bridge of his nose and drops his head into his hands, as he feels the full weight of Jake’s medical crisis and their brotherly feud pressing down onto him.

—–

Although the sidewalks and roads are still wet, the rain has stopped by the time Molly Taylor and her mother step out of the office building onto a street in downtown King’s Bay.

“Thanks for coming with me,” Molly says as they begin down the block toward where they parked. “It really makes a difference to have someone by my side for these appointments.”

“Any time, honey,” Paula Fisher says. “There’s nothing I want more than to make sure my grandchild is born safe and healthy.”

Molly offers her a grateful smile as they pause to let a deliveryman carrying a stack of boxes pass.

“But I really do think you should keep Brent informed about these appointments, too,” Paula adds.

“I know. We’re supposed to sit down and talk about how to tell the boys and…” Molly trails off and then lets out a loud sigh. “Everything feels so wrong. This isn’t how expecting a child should be.”

“But it is happening, and no amount of avoiding the topic is going to slow down these nine months.”

Molly opens her mouth to respond, only to close it when she spots a body walking toward them. She grasps Paula’s forearm, hoping to pull her inside whatever business they are passing, but before she can do so, Loretta Ragan sees them, too.

The woman, dressed in a long, mahogany-colored mink coat, quickens her pace. Even from a distance, Molly’s eye can tell that the coat is not faux fur. 

“Mrs. Fisher,” Loretta says as she stops before them. “And Mrs. Taylor. Or is it Fisher again? I’m afraid I lost track while I was away.”

“Loretta,” Molly says tersely. “You weren’t away — you were in prison.” 

Loretta swats a hand through the air dismissively. “At any rate, I’m here now. I assumed I would see you at some point or another.”

Molly casts a nervous look at her mother, who is studying Loretta with a fearful intensity.

“I don’t believe we’ve officially met,” Loretta says as she juts out a hand toward Paula. “Loretta Ragan.”

Paula remains stone-faced and withholds her own hand. Loretta fixes a disapproving gaze on her.

“Mrs. Fisher, you shot and killed my son,” she says. “The least you could do is shake my hand.”

“That was not how things went,” Molly says. “Philip was–”

“I’ve seen the video,” Loretta snaps. “That’s precisely how it went. Your mother picked up a gun and fired a bullet into my dear son’s chest.”

“And I am sorry for that,” Paula finally says. “I truly am. Taking a life — it isn’t something I ever thought I could or would do. But my girls were in danger. Philip had just murdered five people, including my husband–”

“And my husband died because of your son, Tim, and that despicable Claire,” Loretta responds.  

Molly grabs her mother’s hand. She looks Loretta in the eye and tells her, “We aren’t doing this.”

Loretta grins at them, her eyes twinkling with a hint of something that sends a shiver through Molly’s body. 

“Come on, Mom,” Molly says, pulling Paula away.

“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you both very soon,” Loretta coos ominously, but Molly merely shoots her one last glare before leading Paula back in the direction of their car.

—–

Intrigued, Jason leans forward as he stares across the desk at Tim.

“What do you mean, you know who drugged us?” he asks impatiently.

“It was Loretta. It had to be,” Tim says.

Jason bites his lower lip as he thinks about that. Finally he says, “Elly took credit for hiring the P.I. So you think Loretta paid off the P.I. to engineer the whole thing?”

“Or Elly’s on her payroll, too. Travis said she’s much more aggressive since she got back to King’s Bay. I wouldn’t put it past her.”

“Maybe that’s why Natalie and Spencer are letting her stay there,” Jason adds. “Because they were all in on this together.”

Now Tim frowns. “I’d like to believe Spencer wouldn’t stoop to having you drugged.”

“Take off the rose-colored glasses, Tim. He was raised by Loretta Ragan. Him being in on it is not the wildest possibility I’ve ever heard.”

“No,” Tim admits, “but he swears he knows nothing about it. And he knows you were a victim in this whole thing, too.”

“He says that, but when it comes to hanging onto Peter…” Jason cuts himself off. “I don’t want to fight again.”

“Me, neither. And I don’t know if there’s any way for us to prove that Loretta was behind what happened to you and Alex, short of getting her to confess.”

“It might not matter anyway. After I punched Spencer… it’d be really hard to mount another appeal based on something Loretta did, if we can’t prove that Spencer or Natalie actually had anything to do with it.”

“I know. But if we can prove that Loretta was involved…” 

Jason’s eyes widen. “You want to keep her away from Peter.”

“I don’t want her anywhere near him,” Tim says. “The woman is deranged.”

“It blows my mind that she’s running around free.”

“Not for long, if I can help it.”

“You’re really going to take on Loretta Ragan?” Jason asks.

“I want to protect my grandson, and I want to protect Mom. So I don’t have any other choice.” Tim smacks his hands on the desk and then stands up. “Now get up.”

“What? Why?”

“Because, we are officially making up, which means we’ve got to seal it with a hug.”

“If you say so.” With a laugh, Jason pushes back his chair, and Tim comes around to his side of the desk. He clasps an arm around his younger brother and pats him on the back.

“We’re in this together, okay?” Tim says.

“Always,” Jason responds.

—–

“Mia, I know you’re hurting right now,” Sarah says, “but Matt did not push his brother out that window.”

Mia folds her arms in front of her pale pink sweater. Even her momentary hesitation in answering makes Sarah’s heart rate quicken.

“All Matt wanted was to fix things between them,” Sarah adds.

“I know that. And I know Matt wouldn’t intentionally do anything to hurt Jake.” Mia’s eyelids drop closed. “But I’m scared. Looking at Jake in that hospital bed — especially after we almost lost Marcus…”

“It has to be so painful for you.” Sarah rubs her sister-in-law’s shoulder. “That’s why I’m here. And Marcus is here, and Matt, too.”

Mia brightens a little as she says, “Tori was here this morning, too.”

“Good.” Though it pains Sarah to think about her ongoing estrangement from her own daughter, she knows that the priority right now is Jake. “So let’s start being proactive. We’re going to make sure Jake is okay.”

“How are we gonna do that?”

“First things first: we all get tested to see if we’re a match,” Sarah says. “No waiting around for the transplant list. We are going to find Jake a new kidney as soon as possible.”

END OF EPISODE 1005

Will the Grays find a donor for Jake before it’s too late?
Can the Fishers beat Loretta at her own game?
Is Paula’s advice to Molly about Brent right?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below! 

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