Previously…
– Natalie agreed to give a statement to the police about Loretta’s involvement in Rosie and Gabrielle’s kidnapping. Soon afterward, Loretta was arrested.
– After a harrowing day of testimony in the suit over Gabrielle’s custody, Paula collapsed in the courtroom.
– The Fishers gathered at the hospital to hold vigil as they awaited news on Paula’s condition.

In the small, windowless chapel tucked away inside King’s Bay Memorial Hospital, four adult siblings stand in a circle, their heads bowed and their hands clasped together.

“God,” Tim Fisher says, “please carry our mother through this safely. Please bring her back to us. We all need her.”

“We do,” Molly Taylor adds. The four remain in a weighty silence, offering up silent prayers for their mother’s health.

Finally Sarah lets out a heavy exhale. “I just want to know what’s going on. Can we get an update?”

“Claire went to get one for us,” Tim explains.

“It’s a good sign that she’s been in surgery for a while, isn’t it?” Jason says. “It means they’re actually working to save her.”

Tim and Molly exchange a concerned look, but neither wants to voice what they are thinking: that the lack of news could just as easily indicate a problematic complication.

“We should find Claire and see what’s going on,” Sarah says impatiently.

“I’ll see if I can find her,” Tim says in as even a tone as he can manage. “But we need to stay positive, okay?”

“Tim’s right,” Jason hastens to add. “Mom needs all the good vibes we can send her.”

—–

In a corridor of the emergency unit of the hospital, Claire Fisher stands with the salt-and-pepper-bearded Dr. Artesano, who blinks as he processes her request.

“You know I can’t share a patient’s medical information with someone who isn’t next of kin,” the doctor tells her.

“Please. She’s my children’s grandmother,” Claire pleads. “And I’ll be on duty tonight, so I’ll find out then.”

The doctor draws his lips into a thin, tight line.

“Doctor, please,” Claire says. “Paula’s son is the love of my life. We were married once, and– we’re on the road to being married again. Both my sons and my stepdaughter are her grandchildren. I can go find Tim if you need to tell him directly–“

“It was cardiac arrest,” the doctor blurts out. “We had to perform a single bypass.”

“And it was successful?”

“We were able to complete the procedure, yes. That’s all I can share right now.”

She nods gratefully. “Thank you. Thank you. Just knowing that is a huge help.”

“I’ll be able to share more with the family in a short while, if you want to gather them in the waiting area,” Dr. Artesano says.

“I’ll go get them. I think they’re in the chapel.”

“Okay. And Nurse?”

She lifts her chin. “Yes?”

“I hope that you and your family have the best possible outcome here,” the doctor says before moving off down the corridor.

Claire leans against the wall, processing what Paula has been through and what lies ahead for her.

“Come on, Paula. You’re a strong woman. You can do this,” she says under her breath.

—–

It takes several seconds for things to come into focus. At first, everything around her is a haze of white. It isn’t smoke, exactly, but threads of some kind of mist float by and wrap around her. As those threads separate, Paula Fisher realizes that she is in some strange, undefined space.

Her head darts this way and that as her vision adjusts. She cannot see any walls or even a floor, yet she feels something solid beneath her. She breathes in; the air smells perfectly neutral, clean but without any identifying characteristics, and the temperature is at that precise balance point between warm and cool. It simply is.

“Hello?” she asks. She hears her question echoing slightly in the distance. “Where am I?”

“You’re here. With me,” a male voice speaks, and Paula spins around. She lets out a gasp at the sight before her.

“Mom. Hi,” Ryan Moriani says, his mouth curving upward in a smile as he approaches her.

Paula feels overwhelmed. “Ryan. Is it really you?”

“Yes. It’s me.” He reaches out, his hands grasping her arms, and then he is pulling her to him. Paula marvels at the sensation, of the feeling of her son’s hands on her, then his arms wrapping around her body in a long-overdue hug. “It’s really me.”

“I’ve missed you so terribly,” she says, suddenly on the verge of tears. She knew him as her son for such a short time on Earth, barely more than a decade, and yet the feel of his embrace is as familiar and reassuring to her as that of each of her other four children. “Does this mean I’m…?”

“You’re with me,” Ryan answers simply.

Paula takes a step back. Again she looks around, surveying her surroundings — what little of them there is to see, anyway. She turns in a circle, desperate for some understanding about whether this is really the afterlife, but there is so little to see, just blankness as far as her gaze will reach.

“Ryan,” she says, “please tell me where we are. Am I… am I really dead?”

“That can be arranged,” comes the response, but this time, it is not Ryan speaking. Alarmed, Paula whips back around, and what she sees causes a chill to run through her body.

“Hi, Paula,” Stan Lincoln sneers.

—–

After Elly tells him off and storms over to the hospital’s cafeteria, Spencer Ragan lingers in the ground-floor lobby. His first instinct is to go after her and let her have a piece of his mind, but he doesn’t even want to give her the satisfaction. He was trying to stick up for her in the face of Travis and Rosie’s attacks, and she still made him out to be the bad guy.

“Fine. Then I won’t bother helping you ever again,” he mutters.

He sets out for the elevator bay, intending to go upstairs and check in with the family to see if there is any news about Paula. Yet he dreads facing Travis and Rosie again after the showdown that just took place. But he reasons that he can ignore them and talk only to Tim and Claire.

Just as he is about to press the button to summon an elevator, he feels his cell phone vibrating in the pocket of his navy blue slacks. He pulls it out and is surprised to see the name of a law firm on the caller ID, a number that he saved some time ago on Loretta‘s behalf.

“What now?” he says before answering the call. “Spencer Ragan.”

“Mr. Ragan, this is Clive Blumenthal from Blumenthal, Ridley, and Sylvester.”

“What’s going on?” Spencer asks anxiously.

“It’s your mother,” the attorney says. “She’s been arrested.”

“Arrested? Do I even want to know what the charges are?”

“I’m afraid there’s quite a laundry list: kidnapping, conspiracy, child abduction…”

“Jesus.” Spencer brings a hand to his forehead, and his thumb and forefinger begin working the dull ache mounting at the front of his skull. “Rosie Jimenez and her daughter?”

“Yes. We’re doing everything we can to have a judge set bail. She asked me to notify you.”

“Thanks. Yeah,” Spencer says, flustered. “Is that all?”

“Yes, I suppose so,” Blumenthal says. “Would you like me to pass along any messages for you?”

“Uh, no. Not right now. I’ll…” Spencer trails off, not even sure what he is thinking. “Let her know that she can get in touch with me if she needs anything.”

“Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ragan. I’ll be in touch.”

“Great. Yeah. Thank you.” Quickly Spencer ends the call. Shellshocked by this unexpected news, he stands there in the elevator bank, not moving. Scattered thoughts zip through his mind:

Tim will be so relieved.

I have to figure out what to tell Peter.

Was Natalie telling the truth when she claimed she’d seen Loretta at the old Moriani house where Rosie and Gabrielle were being held?

Then something occurs to him.

“Natalie, what did you do?” he says aloud, before pressing the button to venture upstairs.

—–

Paula freezes in shock at the figure in front of her. Her long-ago lover and the father of one of her sons looks the way she last remembers him: graying, scruffy, bags under his eyes, like years and years of hard living truly took their toll on him. He barely resembles the roguishly handsome young man she foolishly fell for all those decades ago, and it makes it even more difficult for her to understand why she turned to him during a difficult patch in her relationship with Bill.

“Aren’t you happy to see me?” Stan asks.

A chill sweeps over Paula. However serene and neutral this place felt moments ago, now it seems foreboding and claustrophobic. Even without any sense of walls or floors around her, Paula feels trapped.

“Stanley,” she says through ragged breaths. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been waiting for you.” He winks lecherously at her, and the act reminds Paula of the horrific act that he committed against Claire, too.

“Where’s Ryan?”

“Our boy is fine. This right here, this is about you and me, Paula. Or, I should say, about you and me and your eternal soul.”

He reaches out and grabs her hand. Although she tries to pull away, his grip is alarmingly strong.

“Stanley, let me go!”

“No, Paula. You’re coming with me,” he declares, yanking on her arm.

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She tugs against his grip, trying to free herself.

“You don’t have a choice.”

“I’m not going with you, Stanley!” She pulls harder, but she cannot free herself. His grasp is too strong. Desperate, she lets out a wild scream, unrestrained and terrified.

Suddenly, his hold vanishes, and she feels herself falling. She hits what feels like a floor, even though she does not see one beneath herself. But she has the sense that something is supporting her, holding her up.

“Here,” a voice says, and it takes her a second to realize that it is no longer Stan speaking.

When Paula looks up, it is Bill that she sees standing over her, a kind smile stretched over his face.

—–

By the nurses’ station beside the waiting area, Claire addresses the group of tense family members who have gathered to await word on Paula’s condition.

“The good news is that she made it through surgery and the doctors were able to perform the bypass procedure,” Claire tells them. “That’s significant.”

“So she should be okay?” Jason asks.

Claire hesitates, then says, “The fact that they were able to save her and perform the procedure is great. But she still suffered cardiac arrest.”

“This entire court battle has been causing her so much stress,” Sarah says.

“It’s been traumatic for all of us,” Molly adds. In response, Sarah shoots her an irritated look.

“It has been,” Travis agrees, and he puts his arm around Rosie, who is standing beside him. “So what happens now? What does Grandma need?”

“Probably not a bunch of people bickering,” Spencer says under his breath from his spot at the back of the group.

“Time to rest and recover,” Claire says. “She should be able to have visitors as soon as they get her settled in a room in the ICU.”

“And we’re going to do whatever it takes to help her get better,” Tim says. “All of us. Because we need her.”

—–

Paula gazes up at Bill in wonder.

“My Bill…”

“It’s me,” he says, in that same soothing voice that she can always hear so clearly even though he has been gone for years now. “I’m here, my love.”

He offers his hand, and Paula takes it in order to help herself back to her feet. Once again, she cannot believe how real, how present, his touch seems.

“Where did he go?” she questions, turning her head left and right.

“You’re safe,” Bill tells her.

Paula gazes into his eyes and feels reassured. A sense of peace washes over her.

“Bill, am I dead?” she asks. “Is this the afterlife?”

“You’re safe,” he says again. “And I love you, Paula. I miss you.”

“I miss you, too, dear.” Her voice breaks with emotion, and she holds his hands. They feel so real. “There have been times when — when it feels like I’ve really seen you and spoken to you. I want to be with you again.”

“You will be. But not now.”

“Why?”

“Because your work on Earth isn’t done,” he says. “Our family needs you. Our children and grandchildren all need you.”

“Things have been terrible, Bill. Everyone is fighting.”

He nods somberly. “That’s why they need you.”

“Then I’m not dead?” she asks.

“You have life left to live,” Bill says. “I love you, my dear. I long for the day when we can be reunited.”

“Me, too, Bill.”

And then, right before her eyes, he fades away. The sensation of his hands against hers does, too. Suddenly she is alone, surrounded by a vast, white nothingness.

—–

In a room in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, Tim, Molly, Sarah, and Jason are clustered around Paula’s bed.

“We all need you, Mom,” Tim says. “When you’re ready, please come back to us.”

A solemn quiet blankets the room. Monitors gently beep as Paula lies in the bed, motionless.

“We’ll work this all out,” Molly says. “I promise.”

The four stand there for another few seconds, and then Jason exclaims, “Mom?”

They watch as Paula’s eyelids begin to flutter.

“Mom,” Sarah says. “Can you hear me?”

And then Paula opens her eyes. Her gaze is glassy at first, disoriented. But it is clear when things begin to come back into focus.

“You’re awake,” Tim says, overcome with emotion. “Mom, we’re all here.”

“I am, too,” Paula says weakly, taking in her surroundings. “I’m still here.”

END OF EPISODE 1201

Is Paula now on the road to recovery?
Will this change anything about the custody fight?
How will Spencer handle Loretta’s arrest?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!

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