Previously…
– The Fishers and Taylors reacted to the news that Molly is carrying Brent’s baby.
– In the midst of the custody fight over Peter, Bree stopped taking skating lessons from Jason.
– Mia informed Jake that his kidney donor had actually been Matt.

A female voice crackles over the P.A. system, paging a doctor to the nurses’ station just outside the Intensive Care Unit. As Sarah Fisher Gray pushes her husband’s wheelchair down the corridor’s main unit, she feels a sense of relief for the first time in weeks. The knowledge that Matt made it safely through the surgery to have his kidney removed for donation to Jake — and that Tori was concerned enough to join her family in waiting for news — is allowing her to breathe more freely. Still, she knows that her husband has quite a recovery period ahead of him.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” she asks as she steers the wheelchair around a corner.

“More than up for it,” Matt says confidently, though Sarah can still hear the weariness in his voice.

“I just want you to be prepared.”

“Prepared?”

Sarah brings the chair to a stop and steps in front of it so that she can address him face-to-face.

“This could still be tough,” she tells him.

She watches Matt take that in, turn it over in his head, and then fix a determined expression upon his face.

“Maybe,” he says. “Could be. But I have to do it. It’s why I went through this to begin with.” He softens, offering her a smile. “Helps knowing I’ve got you here with me, too.”

Sarah smiles back at him, hoping that she can reflect the same warmth that he has just made her feel.

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be,” she says.

“I can think of a few places other than a hospital that I’d wanna be, but it is what it is. Let’s do this.”

Sarah moves around to the back of the chair and pushes him the rest of the distance. When they reach their destination, they find the door ajar. Sarah wheels Matt into the doorway, and he raps lightly on the open door with his knuckles.

Mia Davich Gray, who has been standing by the bedside with her back to the door, turns. She takes in the sight of her brother-in-law.

“Matt. Hi. It’s really good to see you moving around,” Mia says.

“Thanks,” Matt responds.

Sarah watches as Mia steps out of the way — revealing Jake Gray in the bed.

“Hi,” Matt says to his brother. Sarah can hear his nervousness, and she, too, feels her entire body clench, anxious about how Jake will respond since learning that Matt donated a kidney to him.

“Now this is the kind of surprise I like,” Tim Fisher says as he leads the way from the lobby of Vision Publishing through the bullpen that takes up most of the floor of the company’s downtown King’s Bay office.

“I was running some errands and thought I would stop in to see you,” Paula Fisher explains as she follows him around and through the rows of cubicles. “I hope I’m not interrupting too badly.”

Tim shakes his head. “It’s a pretty slow day. I could use the break, anyway.”

They arrive at his office, on the far end of the floor. Tim motions for his mother to go in first and then follows her in, closing the door behind himself.

“Is Spencer around?” Paula asks as she stands in the middle of the office, gripping her purse handles with both hands.

“He’s at an off-site training today. Here, sit.”

Tim gestures toward one of the upholstered gray slipper chairs, and Paula takes a seat in it. He moves to the other side of the desk and sits in his mesh black executive chair.

“That’s just as well. I thought we could talk,” she says while setting her purse at her feet.

“Of course.” Tim narrows his eyes at her, sensing a change in tone. “Is something the matter?”

“Well.” Paula sighs and looks toward the window, where raindrops are still falling from the soupy gray sky. “Have you talked to Claire, by any chance?”

“Claire? Not today. Why?” Suddenly he feels a spike of panic inside his chest. “Is it about Matt? Sarah and I texted last night, and she said he was doing well–”

“No. Matt’s fine. So is his brother. This is… well, it’s more personal.”

“Personal? I didn’t know you and Claire were back on such close terms.”

“I haven’t actually spoken to her, either,” Paula says, “but this does concern her. You see… your sister is pregnant.”

“Wait. What?” Tim leans forward. “Which sister? And what does that have to do with Claire?”

“Molly. She’s pregnant — and the father is Brent.”

He lifts out of his chair at this news. “What?!”

“I was surprised, too,” Paula says. “But it’s true.”

“When did this happen? And did they bother to tell Claire, or…”

His mother’s silence tells Tim everything that he needs to know.

“How long had this been going on?” he presses.

Paula is flustered as she answers, “I don’t know. It isn’t my business.”

“Well, if they were sneaking around behind Claire’s back for months–”

“They weren’t,” Paula says roughly. “They wouldn’t do that. Your sister is going to need all of our support during this pregnancy, though.”

Tim sits back in his chair. It squeaks slightly as it reclines.

“I can support Molly and still be upset at her choices,” he says, bringing a balled fist to his mouth. “Especially if those choices led to Claire getting hurt. And Brent — he should know better. This is so much like what he and Molly did to Sarah!”

“I’m disappointed in how all this has come about, too. But what’s most important now is that we make sure Molly stays healthy and calm through this pregnancy. The doctor has told her that it’s high-risk because of her age.”

“I’m not going to scream in her face.”

“Good. To be honest, I always suspected she and Brent might wind up together.”

“So they’re back together?”

“It’s complicated right now,” Paula says. “Their focus is on the twins and this baby.”

“That’s probably how it should be,” Tim agrees. “But if they think that we’re all just going to turn a blind eye and be perfectly okay with what they’ve done… they have another thing coming.”

The new album by The Weeknd fills Jason Fisher’s ears, courtesy of his AirPods. The moody soundscape provides a nice distraction as he signs off on payroll checks and bills in his office on the second floor of Edge of Winter Arena.

“Excuse me. Hi. Uh– Jason?”

The voice startles him, and he looks up from his desk with a jolt. Standing several feet from the desk is Bree Halston, in dark jeans and a bright pink down coat.

“Hi. Sorry,” he says, scrambling to remove the AirPods.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. But I thought…”

Jason eyes her carefully, unsure how to take her sudden appearance. “Everything okay? I thought you practiced this morning. Do you need–”

“I did practice this morning. And…” Bree knits her hands together, her fingers wriggling nervously. “I wanted to talk to you, that’s all.”

He makes a show of stashing the AirPods in their case. “I’m all ears. What’s up?”

“Well… it’s about this morning, actually.”

Jason waits as patiently as he can. He recognizes her uneasiness and recalls how it felt to be a teenager, facing an adult for what is presumably a serious reason.

“I know I kind of blew you off when you wanted to talk to Christian,” she says at last. “I’m sorry for that.”

“It’s okay, Bree. But thanks.”

“He said that it helped to talk to you, though.”

“I’m glad to hear that. My heart goes out to him, and Caleb, too — I know what it’s like to find out something about your parents that kind of rocks your whole worldview. I’m sure you do, too.”

Bree nods meekly. “Yeah. And that’s part of why I got so mad when you were fighting with my mom and Spencer over Peter. You were… even though you and Mom didn’t get married, you were like my stepdad for a long time.”

“I considered you another one of my kids, too,” he says. “I never wanted what happened between your mom and me to change that.”

“I think I was just mad because… everything got ripped apart so fast, and my mom married Spencer, and then I thought we might lose Peter, too. And it was so easy to blame you.”

Jason’s heart aches for the teenager. He stands up.

“It was hard for me to accept that Peter isn’t my son biologically,” he explains. “I’m sorry I caused any more pain for you.”

“I get it.” She stares down at her fingers, with their baby blue polish, for another lengthy moment. “I know it must’ve hurt you a lot to find out about Peter, especially the way you did.”

He cracks a wry grin. “It wasn’t one of the high points of my life, I’ll tell you that.”

“I bet. Everything changed so fast, and… it was easy to blame you for keeping it going. But now it’s all over, anyway.”

“It is,” Jason says, feeling a lump swell in his throat at the thought of relinquishing Peter to Natalie and Spencer for good.

“Thanks for backing down from the custody thing,” Bree says. “I haven’t gotten to say that to you.”

“It was the right thing to do.”

Jason pushes past his sadness and forces a smile. “You know, Sophie really misses you. I do, too.”

“I miss you guys, too,” Bree says, suddenly tearing up. “I miss taking lessons from you, and I even miss Sophie bothering me while I try to do my homework, and…” Whatever else she tries to say is swallowed by a torrent of sobs.

Jason comes around the desk and outstretches his arms toward her. Bree falls right into his embrace.

“Everything’s okay,” he tells her. “Everything’s going to be fine. Do you hear me?”

He feels her nodding her head, and a moment later, she looks up, with a smile breaking through the tears.

“Yeah,” she says, still nodding. “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” Jason responds, and her cries turn into a gentle laugh as Jason feels the lifting of a weight that has been pressing down on him for so long that he nearly stopped noticing it. 

Marcus Gray’s hands grip the straps of his backpack as he enters the hospital’s main lobby. The sights and sounds come at him all at once, a wall of white surfaces and moving bodies and distant, competing noises. He remembers all too well the time he spent here when he was recovering from the car accident last year; there was something so overwhelming and unsettling about how much could be going on at once here. He hates that his father and his uncle are both patients now, and he hopes that it will be a long time before they all have to spend this much time here again.

He moves right for the elevator bay and punches the ‘up’ button. It turns a sort of faded orange-pink color, and moments later, one of the elevators’ silver doors opens. He is stepping into it when he hears the voice.

“Wait!” it calls, and a second later, “Marcus!”

The doors begin to close. Marcus pokes another button to stop them, as — through the crack between the doors — he sees the face rushing toward him.

—–

A long moment of deep eye contact between the Gray brothers stretches out, sucking the air from Jake’s hospital room. Sarah and Mia look to one another, their own tension palpable as they wait to see how things between their husbands will play out.

“What are you doing here?” Jake asks.

Sarah flinches, realizing how quickly this could go south. She resists the instinct to grab Matt’s wheelchair and get him out of here — or to ram Jake repeatedly with it.

“I thought I should come see you,” Matt says. “I needed to see you.”

Jake shifts in the bed. “No, I mean — they said it’s okay for you to move around?”

“Doctor Baker gave him the all-clear,” Sarah says.

They all watch as a brighter expression overtakes Jake’s face. Sarah realizes that it has been months and months since she saw her brother-in-law like this.

“I don’t want you having any complications,” Jake says. “Matt, what you did for me…”

Matt seems to be in disbelief; it takes him several seconds to come up with a response. “It was the right thing to do. I couldn’t let Marcus go through this.”

“It’s amazing, man. It’s…” Jake pauses, overcome by emotion. “I can’t believe you’d do this.”

“I had to,” Matt replies in his all-too-typical stoic, underplayed manner.

Another look, this one more hopeful, passes between Mia and Sarah.

“Nah, you didn’t,” Jake says. “Not after the stuff I said to you or the way I treated you. I was so scared of losing Marcus– I had to blame someone. It wasn’t fair.”

Matt exhales so heavily that it seems as if he hasn’t breathed in days.

“I’m sorry for everything that happened,” Matt says after a pause. “With Marcus and with Nicole.”

“I shouldn’t have held a grudge like that,” Jake responds. “Not against someone who would do something like this for me. I’m sorry, too.” 

A sense of relief, of lightness, fills the room.

“Can we start clean, then?” Matt asks.

Jake grins. “Only if you get over here and give me a damn hug.”

Sarah wastes no time in helping Matt maneuver the wheelchair toward Jake’s bed. The brothers clasp hands and manage to give one another awkward but loving pats on the back.

“Be careful, you two,” Mia says.

“She’s right,” Sarah adds. “You both just had major surgery.”

Jake leans against his pillow, as Matt sits back in the wheelchair.

“Just don’t think I’m gonna let you beat me at pool when we can finally play,” Jake says.

“Let me beat you?!” Matt counters, and the four of them erupt into a familiar cacophony of laughter and chatter.

—–

“You could’ve called me,” Tim announces the minute the apartment door is opened.

Claire Fisher stands there, looking back at him with a combination of sadness and surprise on her face.

“You think I should’ve called my ex-husband after I got dumped?” she says. “That strikes me as an even lower low.”

“You can always call me if you need something,” he says, and with that, he enters the apartment. He waits until Claire has closed and locked the door before asking, “So how are you holding up?”

“I’m not great,” she admits, “but it’s starting to sink in that this is all real.”

Tim shakes his head in disgust. “I can’t believe they would do this to you.”

“Neither could I. But the more I think about it, the more I wonder… was I supposed to have seen this coming?”

“No. Why would you have seen this coming?”

Claire shrugs. “Because they’re… Brent and Molly. You know.”

“They also got divorced years ago.”

“Which wasn’t as final as we all thought it was.”

Tim looks at his ex and sees how heavily this heartache is weighing upon her.

“The last thing you should be doing right now is blaming yourself,” he says. “What you and Brent had was real. Anyone could see that.”

“Not real enough, apparently.” She breathes out through her nostrils. “It’s nice of you to come by, Tim, but I’ll be okay. Really.”

“I know you will be. That doesn’t mean you don’t need support.” He smiles warmly at her. “Has Tempest been a help?”

“Absolutely. Between her and work, that’s mostly how I’m staying sane. And I’d love to go see Peter, but…”

“Loretta,” Tim says knowingly, his eyes going wide. “Well, if you’re looking for a real distraction…”

“What?”

“I’m determined to get her out of King’s Bay as soon as possible. I hate the idea that she’s running around free — let alone in the same house as our grandson.”

“I haven’t had the misfortune of seeing her yet,” Claire says. “Have you?”

“No, but I’m sure it will happen sooner rather than later. I still cannot believe they let her out of prison. She’s a menace.”

“To put it mildly. Have you come up with anything?”

“Not as of yet. Brent and I had been putting our heads together, but…”

“You don’t have to take some stand against Brent on my behalf.”

“I don’t have to, but I want to,” Tim says. “For him to treat you that way — it isn’t okay. And neither is what Molly did.”

“I’ll be okay,” she says.

“I know you will be. It still doesn’t make what they did okay.”

She regards him silently for a long moment before saying, “Who knew an ex-husband would wind up being one of my most reliable friends?”

“Couldn’t have predicted how any of this would turn out, could we?”

“Not even close.” She gives him a meaningful look. “But it’s one of the things I’m most grateful for now.”

—–

“That wasn’t letting me win!” Matt exclaims through a laugh. “That was getting your ass kicked!”

“Okay, don’t go overboard here,” Jake quips back. But his jovial mood relaxes as he spies someone in the doorway.

“Marcus. Hey,” Jake says. Matt, Sarah, and Mia also look to the door — and they see that Marcus isn’t alone.

“I ran into someone downstairs,” Marcus tells them.

Tori steps out from behind her cousin.

“Hey,” she says uncertainly.

Matt’s eyes grow with wonder. “Tori…”

“Are you okay?” she asks as she rushes into the room.

“I’m fine,” Matt says. “I’m gonna be fine.”

Tori stoops down to throw her arms around her father.

“And Uncle Jake? You’re okay?” she asks as tears form in her eyes.

“I’m good,” Jake says.

Sarah crouches down to join her daughter and husband in their embrace. Mia takes Jake’s hand as they look on.

“I can’t believe you came,” Matt says, his own voice growing thin from emotion.

“I had to,” Tori says, her hug unrelenting. “I had to be here with you guys. I’m so happy you’re okay.”

Marcus moves over to join his mother and father, and the family rejoices together for the first time in months, as all the pain and agony of the recent past slides away into memory.

END OF EPISODE 1013

Will Tori fully reconcile with her family now?
Can Tim and Claire find a way to outsmart Loretta?
How will Natalie take Bree and Jason’s reunion?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

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