Previously…
– After temporary custody of Gabrielle was granted to Rosie and Travis, Brent and Molly were advised by their lawyers that it could be crucial to their case to prove that Loretta was behind Gabrielle’s initial kidnapping.
– Loretta insinuated to Spencer that she could make Natalie disappear from his and Peter’s lives if Spencer wanted.
– Christian ran into Robbie, who invited Christian to come back to his place with him.

In the driveway outside her large, contemporary home, with its white siding and black shutters, Natalie Bishop pulls open the back door of her Porsche Macan and reaches inside to unstrap her son from his booster seat.

“I can do it myself, Mom,” Peter whines.

She shrugs and throws up her hands. “Go right ahead.” She busies herself with checking the front seat for anything she might have left behind while Peter briefly fumbles with the clasp before releasing himself from the seat. He somewhat clumsily climbs out of the chair and slides out the door.

“Not bad,” she comments.

“Natalie! Have a second?” a man’s voice calls out, and a shudder runs down Natalie’s spine even before she turns to see Brent Taylor approaching. She faintly noticed the Subaru parked across the street when she pulled in, but it didn’t even cross her mind that anyone might be inside it waiting for her, let alone the nuisance police commander.

“Not really,” she says with a big, fake smile. She grabs Peter’s hand and turns toward the house.

“I’d suggest making one, then.” Brent arrives at the foot of the driveway. “Hi, Peter. Why don’t you go on inside so I can chat with your mom for a minute?”

“Okay,” Peter says. “Can I have your keys?”

Grumbling to herself, Natalie pulls her keys from her purse and drops them into her son’s hand.

“I’ll be right in,” she tells him. Again she turns toward Brent, but she merely folds her arms and stares at him in stony silence until she hears the front door closing behind Peter.

“What do you want?” she demands. “This is bordering on harassment, Commander.”

“It isn’t harassment if I’m following up on a lead.” Brent strides up the driveway to come nearer to her. “Why did you change your story about having seen Loretta at Nick Moriani‘s old house the night Rosie and Gabrielle were found?”

“I already told you, that was a complete misunderstanding–“

“Cut the crap, Natalie,” he says. “You told both Molly and Travis that you had seen Loretta go into that house. I know you’re lying.”

“Or maybe Molly and Travis are lying because they’re desperate to pin that kidnapping on Loretta.”

“Sure. That seems completely plausible.” Brent lets out an irritated sigh. “I’m going to offer one more time, Natalie: tell me the truth about what you saw that night, and I’ll make sure Loretta never knows it came from you. You’ll have the KBPD protecting you full-time until she’s dealt with.”

Natalie swallows the lump that has formed in her throat.

“So what’s it going to be?” Brent asks. “Do we have a deal?”

—–

The afternoon passes in a blur of tangled sheets and sweaty skin. By the time Christian Taylor rolls onto his back in the full-size bed in Robbie Wimbiscus‘s apartment, he is breathing heavy — as is Robbie, who lies beside him.

“I’m glad we ran into each other on campus,” Robbie says with a grin.

“Me, too. Yeah.” Christian runs a hand over his face as he stares at the ceiling in awe. “That was…”

Robbie laughs. “Fun. You’ve got a hot little body, Christian.”

Not knowing how to respond to that — “Thanks” seems very lame — Christian giggles. All he can think is, I can’t believe I’m not a virgin anymore. He has thought about this for so long, and although it was awkward at points, it was also fun. Very, very fun. Somehow, Christian feels different than he did this morning, different than he did when he ran into Robbie at the campus bookstore earlier.

Christian rolls onto his side to look at Robbie, who grabs his iPhone from the bedside table and begins checking it. After waiting a few seconds while Robbie scrolls, Christian looks around for his phone, too. He spots his jeans on the floor and, holding the bedsheet over himself because he suddenly feels exposed, reaches down to pull his phone from the pocket.

He feels a flicker in his chest when he sees an alert from Bree. He had texted her Robbie’s address, just in case anything weird happened, and then he promptly forgot about that text — and the lie that he would be working on a project off-campus — until this moment. Although it is an irrational fear, he now wonders if she somehow knows the truth about where Christian is.

When he opens the message thread, however, he sees two messages from Bree that don’t imply in any way that she knows that he just had sex with a guy:

Why are you sending me the address? Do you need a ride? LOL

Marcus and I are going to that Cinco de Mayo thing at Nikki’s later if you want to come

His phone still clutched in his hand, Christian turns back to Robbie, who is now smiling at him.

“What?” Christian asks bashfully.

“Nothing. You’re hot, that’s all.”

“So are you.” Christian leans forward and plants a kiss on Robbie’s lips. They feel a little dry and cracked, no doubt from all the making out they just did; Christian’s lips feel the same. 

I guess this is part of hooking up, he thinks.

“My friends just invited me to a Cinco de Mayo party,” he says, marveling at how handsome Robbie is, even with his brown hair askew. “I was thinking… do you want to come with me?”

—–

Brent squares his stance toward Natalie and folds his arms as he waits impatiently for her response.

“Natalie,” he finally prompts her.

“What do you want me to say?” she snaps back. “This is like… entrapment. I have nothing else to tell you.”

“I don’t believe that.”

As he says this, however, Natalie sees her husband’s car pulling up to the house. Spencer Ragan parks at the foot of the driveway and steps out. She isn’t sure whether to feel relieved or panicked.

“What’s going on?” he asks warily.

Brent glowers at Natalie for a long moment, as if daring her, and then speaks himself: “I have some questions for your wife.”

Spencer swivels his head between Natalie and Brent. “About…?”

“He’s got some crackpot theory,” Natalie says.

“About the night the old Moriani house blew up,” Brent interjects. “And it’s not a crackpot theory. I have two witnesses on record claiming that Natalie told them she’d seen your mother going into that house that night.”

Several seconds pass. Spencer furrows his brow but otherwise shows no outward reaction. 

“That was the night they found Rosie and Gabrielle, right?” he finally asks.

Brent nods. Natalie remains as still as she possibly can, afraid to poke either of the bears before her. 

“Loretta — my mother — she was home before Natalie that night,” Spencer says at last. “Like, way before. We were both in the entry when Natalie got home.”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” Brent says.

“I guess not, but I feel like I would’ve noticed something weird between them when Natalie came in — if Loretta had been there, I mean.”

Brent lifts one hand to stroke his chin. “Maybe.”

“I wish I had something more helpful to tell you, Brent,” Spencer says. “And believe me: if I had a reason to throw my dear wife under the bus, I would.”

With a harrumph, Brent points his index finger at Natalie. “I’m keeping my eye on you. If it turns out you’re keeping anything about that night from me–“

“You heard Spencer,” she says. “And you both know I have no poker face. So if I didn’t react to seeing Loretta when I got home…”

“Fine,” Brent says with resignation. “But I’m going to be watching you. I promise.”

He returns to the Subaru and starts the engine. Spencer moves closer to Natalie.

“Where’s Peter?” he asks.

“He went inside before Brent started grilling me. Don’t worry.”

“Good. Because you and I need to have a word.”

“Yeah, we do,” Natalie says as she watches Brent drive off. “Why the hell would you lie to the police for me?”

—–

Robbie squints his eyes as he takes in Christian’s question. Every millisecond that passes in quiet makes Christian cringe a little harder. 

“Sorry, that was stupid,” he blurts out. “You wouldn’t want to come.”

“No,” Robbie says, a little too hurriedly. “It’s not that.”

“It isn’t?”

“No. No. But…” Robbie’s forefinger and middle finger pinch at the striped bedsheets as he finds his words. “…don’t you think it’d be weird for someone my age to show up at a party with, what, freshmen? I’ll look like a creep.”

“You’re not a creep. We’re hanging out. I’m an adult, too.”

Robbie lets out a little huff through his nostrils that falls short of becoming a laugh. “It’d still look weird. Freshman meets older guy online… the gossip just writes itself, you know?”

“Hmm. Yeah.” Christian tries to imagine explaining to Bree and Marcus exactly who Robbie is — My boyfriend? Someone I’m dating? — but it does feel daunting and bizarre. “How about dinner then? I don’t have to go to the party. Or I don’t have to go until way later, at least.”

“Oh, man. I wish I could. But I picked up an extra shift doing deliveries tonight. So I’m gonna have to grab dinner on the go.”

“That’s okay,” Christian says, his heart nevertheless sinking inside his chest. 

Sensing his disappointment, Robbie adds, “But we’ll hang soon, okay? I should catch a shower before I have to head out to work.”

“Oh. Yeah. Go ahead.” Christian scrambles to pick up his pants and underwear from the floor. “Maybe this weekend–“

But his statement is interrupted by the closing of the bathroom door. Christian gets dressed as he listens to the shower running.

—–

As Brent drives back to the station, he replays the encounter with Natalie and Spencer in his head. 

“I know Molly and Travis aren’t lying,” he murmurs. 

But Spencer would have no reason to play along with Natalie’s lie. Would he? Sure, Loretta has been living with Spencer and Natalie since she showed up in King’s Bay… but Brent recalls, from the time he was dating Claire, that Spencer wasn’t exactly thrilled to have the woman who raised him under his roof.

“What am I missing here?” he asks aloud to the empty car. He still doesn’t doubt that Natalie is the key to proving that Loretta was at that house that night and therefore involved with Rosie and Gabrielle’s kidnapping. And if he can prove that, he can tie Loretta to Dr. Longo…

“There has to be some way to prove this!” he exclaims, banging his hands against the Subaru’s steering wheel.

—–

“The better question,” Spencer says to Natalie, “is why you’re lying to the police in the first place.”

“I’m not lying,” she says gruffly.

“Bullshit.” He glances toward the house, ensuring that there is no one able to hear them. “I saw your face when you got home that night. You were shocked to see Loretta here. You thought she’d gotten blown up in the Moriani house, didn’t you?”

Natalie purses her lips and stares back at him. Maybe the lack of response will bore him into giving up.

No such luck,  however. 

“I’m going to give you a helpful heads-up,” Spencer says. “Loretta has, uh, strongly implied that she has some kind of leverage over you.”

Natalie’s heart jumps up into her throat. “What? What’d she say?”

“Not much more than that. But I think I know what happened that night: you followed her for some reason that only you and your demented mind know. You did see her go into the house. You were there when it blew up, which is how Travis and Molly saw you. And then you came rushing home, ready to tell me what had happened, except Loretta was here and in one piece, and she scared the shit out of you, so you kept quiet and changed your story.”

Panic courses through Natalie’s veins.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” he says.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I do. What I don’t know is what she’s holding over you. Knowing you and the shit you’ve pulled in the past, it must be something wild–“

“Spencer, what do you want from me?”

“I want the truth,” he says.

“Neither of us has ever been too worried about dealing in truth.”

“Maybe not. But this is one time when the truth actually could set you free.”

The thought of wriggling free from Loretta’s control, after all this time, is so appealing to Natalie. And maybe Spencer is a safer outlet for the truth than Brent…

“I never wanted her living here in the first place,” Spencer continues. “You’re the one who said she could stay here. Is it Peter? Is she threatening him?”

“No. She’d take him away from me in a heartbeat. That much I know,” Natalie tells him. “But she wouldn’t hurt him. I don’t think.”

“That’s something. But… Tim and Claire, they’re pretty desperate for a way to get Loretta out of everyone’s lives. And if she did have something to do with having Gabrielle ripped away from Molly right after she was born — that’s the golden ticket. So please. Tell me what you know. I can make sure that she isn’t able to use what she has on you.”

His eyes plead with her. Natalie stares back at this man, with whom she shares a child, with whom she has lived for years. They’ve had moments of extreme conflict and moments of surprising intimacy. She knows that he genuinely loves Peter and that he has come to care for the Fishers, especially Tim, Claire, and Samantha. Maybe his loyalty to Loretta is a thing of the past…

“I wish I could help,” she says abruptly. “But I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“Natalie, I know you know something.”

“I don’t know anything.” She throws up her hands and turns toward the house. “I don’t know what else to tell you, Spencer.” She hurries up the driveway and into the house, her heart racing in time with her footsteps as she hurries away from him and this confrontation.

I have to figure out a way out of this, she thinks as she goes inside, eager to find Peter in order to ground herself.

END OF EPISODE 1181

Is there anyone who could get through to Natalie?
Did Christian make a mistake sleeping with Robbie?
Talk about all this and more in the comments below!

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