Previously…
– Elly came to see Spencer and was thrown when Natalie opened the door and revealed that she and Spencer had consummated their marriage of convenience.
– Rosie awaited word on what will happen next with the infant who was abandoned outside the KBPD.
– Diane was surprised when Ben, the doctor with whom she had a fling on her cruise, showed up at KBAY, having figured out her real name — but she was even more shocked when Tempest arrived and recognized him as her long-lost brother, Isaac!

In the lobby of the office building that houses KBAY’s studios, Diane Bishop turns with annoyance to face Tempest Banks, who has just appeared — seemingly out of nowhere, and for no reason — to interrupt Diane’s confrontation with the doctor who tracked her to King’s Bay after their encounter on the Alaskan cruise. 

“Not now, Tempest,” Diane says. “What are you even doing here?”

Tempest, however, barely even acknowledges Diane. Her focus is solely on the man whom Diane knows as Ben.

“Uh, the real question ought to be, what are you doing here, Isaac?” Tempest asks him, her shock evident.

“Isaac?” Diane does a double-take. “What the hell is going on?”

He goes slack-jawed as his eyes dart back and forth between the two women. Tempest plants her hands on her hips.

“That’s what I was about to tell you,” he finally says. “My name’s Isaac.”

“You lied to me?” Diane says.

“You lied to me first,” he retorts in disbelief.

“Someone wanna tell me how you two even know each other so you can be lying in the first place?” Tempest demands.

Diane’s eyes meet Isaac’s for a fraction of a second, but a silent understanding passes between them in that moment. 

“We met on a cruise,” Isaac says.

“And I told him I’d give him a tour of the station if he was ever in King’s Bay,” Diane jumps in. “You know, how you make promises that you don’t expect people to ever take you up on. How do you two know each other?!”

“He’s my brother,” Tempest says.

The entire lobby shifts into a sort of blurred slow-motion, a hazy whirl of sounds and colors and shapes that blend into one another. All Diane can take in right now are the two people — the two siblings –– standing before her.

“What kind of setup is this?” Diane asks, folding her arms protectively across her body.

Isaac turns back to her, a pleading expression on his face. “It’s not a setup.”

“You sure about that?” Tempest asks as she levels an accusatory stare at Diane. “Wouldn’t be the first time you messed with my family–“

“That’s not what’s going on here,” Diane says, stung. She can feel Isaac’s curious stare now boring into her.

“I’m sorry, I’m lost,” he says. “How do you two know each other?”

“It’s a long story,” Tempest tells him.

“And you live here?” Isaac asks his sister. 

She rolls her eyes back at him. “Been here for years. Which you’d know if you’d ever bothered to find me–“

“I tried.”

“Not hard enough. Mom found me.”

Diane holds up both palms and backs away from them. “I’m going to give the two of you some time. It seems like you need it.”

Before either of them can respond, she retreats even further, her head spinning wildly at whatever just transpired here.

After his mother returns to work, Travis Fisher lingers in the waiting area outside the hospital’s pediatric unit. He is checking his work schedule for the coming week on his iPhone when he glances up — as he has been doing every minute or so — and sees his girlfriend emerging from the elevator bay in her police uniform.

“How long have you been here?” Rosie Jimenez asks as they greet each other with a quick peck on the lips.

“Not that long. I wanted to see you before I head to work,” he says, their fingers loosely intertwining. “I caught up with my mom.”

“Did she fill you in on what’s going on?”

Travis nods. “That poor kid. Do you have any leads on who dropped her at the station?”

“Nothing yet.” A dark shadow seems to fall over Rosie’s face. “I just had to update Commander Taylor on the whole thing. I know he must not be your favorite person in the world these days, but watching him get his hopes up…”

“What? He thought the baby might be…”

“His and your aunt‘s. Yeah.” Rosie sucks in her lips, pulling them back over her teeth as she contemplates the situation. “I really think he thought there was a chance.”

“But this is a little girl, isn’t it?” Travis asks.

“Yeah. And I know it’s my job to find whoever abandoned her, ’cause they broke the law, but the thought that those people might be able to get her back…” She shakes her head in despair. 

Something behind Travis catches Rosie’s attention, and he turns to follow her eyeline. A middle-aged woman with close-cropped, graying hair and a rumpled navy blazer is walking toward them.

“That’s the social worker,” Rosie quietly informs Travis before the woman reaches them.

“Ms. Larridee,” Rosie says. “Good morning.”

“Hi, Officer Jimenez,” the social worker replies, though she is casting a somewhat dubious look at Travis as she does.

“This is my boyfriend, Travis Fisher,” Rosie explains. “His mother is Claire Fisher — the nurse who’s been helping us out.”

“Nice to meet you,” Travis says.

“You, too,” Ms. Larridee says, though her tone doesn’t quite sell the sentiment. 

Sensing her iciness — or perhaps it is simply professional focus — Travis takes a step away from the women.

“I’ll give you some time,” he says, before moving back into the waiting area.

“I haven’t gotten an update from the doctors yet this morning, but it sounded like they were getting the baby’s fever down,” Rosie says. “Once she gets the all-clear — what happens next?”

As much as Travis wants to respect the privacy of the situation, he is only a few feet away, and thus he can see and hear the interaction. He watches Rosie’s tense posture and hopeful expression as she awaits the social worker’s answer.

Weezer’s cover of the Toto song “Africa” plays over the speaker system inside Cassie’s Coffee House. As he waits for his drink at the end of the bar, Spencer Ragan catches himself humming along under his breath and then looks around to confirm that no one has heard him. Thankfully, it doesn’t appear that anyone noticed his brief musical interlude, and he resumes waiting quietly until his name is called.

He grabs his Americano from the bar and is heading for the exit when he sees Elly Vanderbilt entering the coffee shop. The two of them stop in their tracks, still several feet apart, once they spot each other.

“Great,” Elly says with irritation.

“I guess this really limits your ability to ignore my texts and calls,” Spencer says.

“You’d think me not responding to you for weeks would be enough of a hint on its own, wouldn’t you?”

She begins to move past him. Spencer spins around in place.

“Wait,” he says. “The last time I saw you was when we met up here–“

“And I told you to butt out of my personal business.”

“You mean whatever happened between you and that partner at the law firm where you interned.”

She breathes in sharply through her nostrils. “And to stop making accusations.” 

“Elly,” he says, doing his best to soften his tone, “I know something happened, and I know my mother used it to get you to help her manipulate the custody case.”

“Would you stop it with these conspiracy theories?” she hisses through gritted teeth. “There’s a reason I haven’t responded to you. Let it go, Spencer.”

Again she moves to go, but Spencer stops her cold by lobbing a question her way:

“What about that night we met up here?” he asks. “Why did I have a bunch of calls and texts from you later that night?”

Elly’s mouth flaps open and closed, but no answer emerges.

“You were asking if I was still up,” Spencer says. “What was that all about?”

Still, Elly remains silent, an indignant expression overtaking her face. She pushes her red hair over one shoulder but offers him no explanation.

“You wanted to talk to me after you left that night,” Spencer presses. “So what changed between then and the next morning?”

—–

As soon as Diane leaves them alone, Tempest bolts for the entrance of the office building. The cool autumn air whips her in the face as Isaac rushes out after her.

“Tempest! Hold up,” he calls out.

She stops, keeping her back to him, and hears his footfalls jogging toward her. 

“I looked for you,” he says. “I’ve looked for you. You aren’t on Facebook–“

“Not under my real name. ‘Cause I didn’t want Mom finding me.”

“I get that. That’s why I left, too.”

“And you left me.” Overcome with emotion, she spins around, shooting him a death glare. “Why didn’t you take me with you?”

“Because…” Isaac’s hands move aimlessly through the air as he searches for words. “I wasn’t gonna kidnap my baby sister and take her out of the state–“

“You left me with Mom.” She grimaces at even having to speak the next part aloud. “You left me with Hank.”

“Temp. I’m sorry. I am. I was a dumb kid. All I knew was I had to get outta there.” He studies her intently, his eyes filled with concern. “Do they know you’re here?”

“Mom’s dead,” Tempest says flatly.

“She’s what?” Isaac staggers backward half-a-step. “Are you sure?”

“She came here. She found me.”

“How?”

“This news interview I did — it went viral and she saw it. Showed up pregnant out to here.” She holds a hand in front of her stomach. “We have a little brother.”

He swipes a hand across his forehead. “What? What happened to Mom?”

“There was a car accident. Chase made it, but she didn’t. That’s our brother. Chase.”

“Where is he?” Isaac asks. “Does he live with you?”

“No. Two of my friends adopted him. He’s good. Happy.”

“Do you see him? Can I meet him?”

Tempest glowers at him for several more seconds. “I can’t do this now. You turning up like this — you really didn’t know I was here?”

“No! I met Diane on that cruise, and…” He trails off, utterly overwhelmed by the deluge of unexpected information about the family he hasn’t seen in so long. “What about you? You look good. Grown-up.”

Obstinately, she shakes her head. “I can’t do this, Isaac. Not now. Not with all this time gone by, and–“

“We’ll go one step at a time,” he says gently. 

“I can’t. It’s– I can’t.” 

“Tempest. Wait.”

But she hurries away from him, with a desperation that she hopes will make it clear to Isaac that he shouldn’t pursue her. Only when she rounds the corner of the building and is in the parking lot does she stop to catch her breath, to confirm that he isn’t on her heels. Once she knows that much, she keeps moving, needing to get back to her office, to get away from here, her entire reason for coming to see Diane washed away into nothingness by this shock of an encounter.

—–

Diane takes the elevator back down to KBAY’s basement studio. All she can think about is making it back to her office and closing the door, as if that might shut out the developments of the last few minutes. It’s all too crazy to process. Ben is here. Except he isn’t Ben. He’s Isaac — Tempest’s brother. Diane now faintly remembers having heard about him at one point when Tempest and Samantha were together, but never could she have imagined meeting him under circumstances like this.

She is nearly to her office when she sees Jaq Pearson walking down the hallway toward her. Instinctively, Diane stands up straighter, pulls back her shoulders, and adopts what she hopes is a normal, pleasant facial expression.

“Everything okay?” Jaq asks, a searching, worried look appearing on their own face. 

“What? Yeah, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You look a little… stressed and pale, that’s all.”

“Gee, thanks. No, I promise I’ll be okay.”

“Okay,” Jaq says uncertainly. “If you need anything, I’ll be down in the copy room.”

“Thanks, Jaq.”

Diane hardly wastes another second getting inside her office and locking the door. She finds herself suddenly struggling to catch her breath, as if she’s been holding it for minutes on end. None of this makes sense, and she isn’t sure if it ever will, but one thing is now crystal-clear: whatever she and Isaac had, it has to stay on that cruise ship, locked away in the past, forever.

—–

Travis uneasily takes a seat in one of the plastic chairs in the waiting area. He keeps one eye on the interaction between Rosie and the social worker, though he does not want to appear to be eavesdropping.

Several feet away, Rosie nervously waits for Ms. Larridee to explain what will happen to the baby.

“I have a foster placement in mind already,” the social worker says. “A home that I think will be very good for that little girl for the time being.”

“So she won’t go to a group home?” Rosie asks.

“Not right now, no. And if this foster situation works out, or if another family comes along within the right timeframe, then we can avoid that entirely.”

Rosie draws a deep breath and then exhales loudly. Even though she knows it is not her role to worry about what happens to the child from here on out, she also can’t not worry about it.

“What about if– when– we find her family?” Rosie inquires. “Would they just be able to take her back?”

“Assuming they’re the ones who abandoned her, and that she wasn’t kidnapped or relinquished by some sort of coercion, it’d be very difficult. But that’s where the courts step in.” 

“Okay. Thanks.” Rosie glances toward Travis, who smiles reassuringly at her. “Please do everything you can to make sure she winds up in a good home. A loving home.”

“I will,” Ms. Larridee says. “I’m going to go make some calls about that placement now. Thank you for all your help, Officer Jimenez.”

“You, too.”

Rosie watches the social worker head for the elevators, as Travis stands to rejoin his girlfriend. 

“That baby’s going to be okay,” he says as he places his hand on her back, rubbing slowly in circles. “Maybe better than okay. Look at Tempest. Getting out of her family situation and moving in with my mom gave her the chance to really live her life.”

“I know. I know.” Rosie sighs. “It’s just, I became a cop to make the world better. To protect people. And now I’m supposed to wash my hands of the whole thing and hope Social Services takes care of her?”

“It’s what they do. And you can help by finding whoever left her outside the station, right? That way a judge can take away their parental rights or whatever?”

“Yeah. I guess so.” 

But she still doesn’t sound as if her fears have been dispelled. 

“You made a difference by getting that kid in here for medical care so fast,” Travis tells her, “and now we’ll cross our fingers that they find a good home for her.”

“I really hope so,” Rosie says as she rests her head on his shoulder.

—–

Elly lets out a derisive snort. 

“You really have a high opinion of yourself, don’t you?” she says to Spencer.

“Uh, you’re the one who was hitting me up late at night,” he replies. “What was that all about?”

“I wanted to make sure you got the message to stay out of my business.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. Spencer, drop it. Okay?”

“Okay. Fine. Message received.” He takes a sip of his Americano as he thinks about where to steer this next. “For the record, though, you wouldn’t be nearly this defensive if you didn’t have something to hide.”

“For the record, I’m not defensive,” Elly says. “I don’t trust you, and I want to make it crystal-clear that this ends here, or I’m going to take legal action.”

“Legal action? Come on.”

“And I think you’re aware of how good a lawyer I am, so I’d advise you to drop this ASAP.”

“Fine. Consider it dropped. Elly, I really didn’t want to make this a whole thing–“

“Well, you did. And now it’s over.” She hikes her purse up on her shoulder. “I hope you and your wife are very happy together.”

“My wife? What does Natalie have to do with this?”

Elly simply shakes her head, allowing her long eyelashes to flutter, and then turns her back on him. She marches toward the counter to give the barista her order.

Spencer watches her in disbelief for another moment and then exits the coffee house, not sure how this went so wrong – or why he so badly wants to make things right with Elly.

END OF EPISODE 1048

Should Elly admit to Spencer that she knows about him and Natalie?
Will Rosie be able to locate whoever abandoned the infant?
Can Tempest and Isaac forge a relationship as siblings?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!

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