Previously…
– Rosie and Travis patched up their recent tension, and Rosie assured him that she would be okay if he agreed to visit Gabrielle at Molly and Brent’s home.
– Landon brought Tori, who is still working from home, a mug to keep on her desk when she returns to the office. He asked her out to dinner, but before she could answer, she was pulled into a work task for the rest of the evening.
– Sarah got a lead that Sonja and TJ were in Idaho. She tried to rush off in pursuit of them, but her car wouldn’t start. Landon, having nothing else to do, offered to drive her.

A nervous energy traces its way through Travis Fisher‘s veins as he waits on the front porch of his aunt and uncle’s home. He has imagined this visit so many times, and his mind and heart have filled with so many expectations for it; however, he always envisioned Rosie being here with him. When he came home to the romantic dinner she prepared last night, he got ahead of himself — but she ultimately didn’t feel ready to see Gabrielle yet, and he knows that he can’t force her to feel ready. For his part, he can hardly ascertain how he feels: anxious? Excited? Cautious? It’s all a big, confusing swirl inside of his head right now.

The sounds of the door being unlocked jerk him from his thoughts. A second later, the door opens, revealing both Molly and Brent.

“Hi, Travis,” Molly greets him with a soft but somewhat forced smile.

“Hi.” Travis realizes, throughout all his imagining, that he didn’t think much about how he would actually address them. The whole encounter has been so focused on Gabrielle in his mind. He feels such residual anger toward them for the way that the custody case played out, and yet it is also difficult for him not to see them as the kind, loving aunt and uncle that he grew up with.

He hears birds chirping in the pleasant but cool morning air behind him.

“How’s she doing?” he asks, slapping a cheerful expression on his face.

“Gabrielle’s good. She’s playing in the family room,” Brent answers, and the couple steps aside to let him into the house.

Travis hesitates outside the door.

“Come on in,” Molly says.

But Brent furrows his brow, studying the younger man.

“What’s wrong?” Brent asks the unmoving Travis. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

—–

“Mmm. The chocolate glazed is way better than the strawberry.”

Landon Esco sits behind the steering wheel of his parked car, munching on a donut. He and Sarah Fisher Gray are parked outside an Urgent Care clinic in Sandpoint, Idaho, where they impulsively drove last night after Sarah received a tip about Sonja Kahele having visited the facility. Unfortunately, they arrived in Idaho after the clinic had closed, so now they are waiting for it to open.

Sarah, in the passenger seat, looks up from her phone. “And how does it stack up to the Boston cream?”

“They’re both way better. That was trash,” Landon comments as he takes another bite of the glazed donut and wipes his fingers on the napkin resting on his thigh. “I guess you don’t come to Idaho for something with Boston in the name, though. Should’ve gotten one of those maple bars, too…”

“How many donuts can you eat in one sitting?” Sarah asks.

“I’m sampling. You think I’m gonna finish that Boston cream? No way.” He holds up the half of the strawberry donut that he broke off. “You sure you don’t want?”

Sarah shakes her head.

“Come on. We’re on a stakeout.”

“It’s cops you love donuts, according to the stereotype,” she tells him. “Not P.I.s.”

“Well, you used to be a cop, didn’t you?”

She sighs, rolls her eyes, and then grabs the donut from him. She takes a bite and chews on it thoughtfully.

“That’s not bad,” she comments. But as she is about to indulge in another bite, she notices a middle-aged woman with short, burgundy-red hair unlocking the glass door at the front of the clinic.

Sarah hands the donut back to Landon. “Time to get to work.”

Landon sticks the donut in the open box on his lap, flips the lid shut, and undoes his seatbelt. “Let’s do this.”

“No. Nooooo,” Sarah says. “You stay put.”

“What? Why? I’m part of this mission, too.”

“Just let me handle the part of this where I have to get medical staff to reveal sensitive information,” she explains. “I really appreciate you driving and keeping me company, Landon. But this is my area of expertise, okay?”

She opens the passenger door. “I’ll be back in a few.”

“Good luck,” he mumbles. As she closes the car door, Landon groans and flips open the donut box again.

—–

Matt Gray presses his foot to the gas pedal of the Jeep. He listens, as patiently as he can, for the sounds that will indicate a successful mission. At first, all he hears is a labored whirring… but then the engine turns over, first with a grunt before settling into its more stable hum.

“That sounds like it’s working!” Tori Gray observes as she steps out of her grandmother’s house.

Matt slips out of the Jeep. “Yeah, just needed a jump. Nothing too crazy.”

“I bet Mom’ll be happy it’s running,” Tori says, walking down the front steps and into the driveway. “I still can’t believe Landon drove her all the way to Idaho.”

With a chuckle, Matt comments, “Wasn’t really a text I thought I’d be getting at work last night.”

Tori scrunches up her face. “I can’t even imagine what the two of them talked about that whole drive. Or listened to.”

Matt shakes his head as he walks from the still-running Jeep over to his truck, which is running and connected to Sarah’s vehicle with jumper cables.

“How’d that even happen?” he asks his daughter. “How’d Landon know her car wouldn’t start?”

“I guess he was leaving while she was trying to start it. He stopped by to give me a little gift or whatever.

“‘A gift or whatever’? What’s the occasion?”

She shrugs. “Me going back to work. It was just a mug.”

“Got it.” He sets about disconnecting the jumper cables from the truck. “A special mug?”

“Dad! It’s just a stupid mug. Well, not stupid, but, like, a cute little thing for my desk.”

“That was nice of him. Landon can be a little goofy, but he’s a really thoughtful guy.” He carefully unclamps one of the cables. “I still can’t believe he was so willing to put himself in danger to help us expose Zane.”

Tori grimaces. “And look how that worked out… Zane could’ve really hurt him if Mrs. Chase hadn’t come by with her chili pot.”

“Right. But Landon’s okay, and Zane’s out of the picture.”

“Thank god. I still can’t believe I was so stupid. Zane could’ve killed Landon and I still stayed with him.”

“Don’t do that to yourself,” Matt tells her. “My point is, you’re lucky you’ve got someone like Landon in your corner.”

Tori watches thoughtfully as he sets the used cables down on the driveway.

“I know I am,” she says, as much to him as to herself.

—–

Travis stands on the porch as Brent’s question echoes through his mind: Are you sure you’re ready for this?

Maybe not, he thinks, but it’s too late to go back now.

“Yeah. Of course,” he says with strained nonchalance. He steps inside the house and lowers his voice. “What’s been going on? How’s she adjusting?”

“She’s fine,” Molly says, perhaps a little hurriedly, as she closes and locks the door. “She’s safe, and cared for, and–“

“I don’t doubt that,” Travis says, though he isn’t sure why he feels the need to reassure the people who took his daughter away from him. “But you said she was having some trouble.”

“That’s true.” Molly nods as Brent leads the way past the kitchen and toward the living room. In a whisper, she adds, “A lot of it is at night. She won’t sleep in her own room. And letting her cry it out seems so cruel.”

“It’s tough to hear them wailing like that,” Brent says. “Neither of the twins did that.”

Travis’s instincts want to snap, Well, neither of the twins got ripped away from the only home they knew for the first two years of their lives, but he thinks better of it.

“She does like having them home for the summer,” Molly says. “She went into Christian‘s room to sleep the other night.”

“That’s sweet,” Travis says, even as he feels his heart breaking a little thinking of Gabrielle feeling so afraid and alone. As they turn the corner, he can see little Gabrielle, sitting on the floor playing with a set of dolls. She looks bigger than the last time he saw her — more like a little child than a toddler — and her dark hair is pulled up into a pair of pigtails with pink rubber bands securing them. He has to fight the urge to run toward her and scoop her up.

Brent stops and squares his body toward Travis. “She’s been asking for you guys sometimes. Asking when she’s going to… go home. We thought that if she could see you here and think of this as a place where you’ll come visit her, it might help her be less hung up on that separation.”

“Right. Yeah.” Travis bobs his head up and down in agreement, as he processes the idea that Gabrielle still thinks of him and Rosie as home.

“Honey! Look who’s here!” Molly announces, and the three step into the family room.

Gabrielle looks up, and for a long moment, sits there with wide eyes. Then a smile breaks over her face, and she exclaims in a sweet, high-pitched voice:

“Daddy!!!”

—–

Inside the Urgent Care clinic, which is thankfully empty at this early hour, Sarah stands at the reception counter, speaking with the burgundy-haired receptionist. Sarah holds up her phone, which displays a photo of Sonja and TJ — one of the few that she has, and although it is not the best quality, it’s the best one that Tim was able to provide her.

“Please, all I need to know is whether you saw either of these people recently,” Sarah says. “Especially yesterday.”

The receptionist stares back at her with harsh, slightly squinted eyes but offers no verbal response.

“I’m not asking you to reveal medical information,” Sarah presses. “I’m not even asking you as an employee of this clinic. I’m asking you as a person out in the world.”

The receptionist glances over her right shoulder, then her left. Sarah interprets the act as checking as to whether she is alone, and a spark of hope glimmers inside her chest. However, she is careful not to betray any of that externally; she wants to let the receptionist come to this on her own, or at least feel as though she has.

“I’m sorry,” the woman says curtly. “I can’t answer that.”

Sarah draws her lips together and pauses. What she wants to say is, Yes, you can! But she mentally counts to three.

“That boy is my nephew,” she explains in a gentle voice. “My brother’s ex took off with him. We haven’t seen him in months, and we’re desperate to get him back. Please, if you’ve seen them…”

But the receptionist replies with that same frosty expression and a question: “Why are you looking for them here?”

“Because I got word that they were in this area,” Sarah says. “I’m going around to local businesses asking if anyone can point me in a helpful direction.”

“I can’t tell you anything,” the woman says, and she pushes out her chair and goes to check on a fax machine that hasn’t given any indication that it is turned on, let alone receiving a fax.

Sarah remains at the counter, not willing to give up yet. She sighs and bows her head in frustration as she tries to think of another angle. But when the receptionist throws her another dirty look, Sarah decides that this is a dead end; she already has a fairly good sense that Sonja was here yesterday, so she might as well make her cover tactic a reality and try asking around at other nearby businesses.

She stuffs her phone back in her purse and moves to the exit — but she is nearly bowled over by Landon, who comes bounding into the clinic.

“What are you doing?” she whispers, but he ignores her and goes straight for the reception desk.

“Excuse me,” he calls out.

“Just a moment, sir,” the receptionist answers, as she bustles back to the desk. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m an insurance adjuster with Geico,” he says cheerfully. “You know, with the gecko in the commercials?”

Sarah fights the instinct to rush forward and grab him by his shoulders. Instead she takes a seat in one of the armless plastic chairs against the wall and pretends to be engrossed in something on her phone.

“I do like those commercials,” the receptionist says. “Very cute.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” He places an elbow on the counter and leans forward. “I’m investigating a hit-and-run that took place out on this street yesterday–” He points through the front windows of the clinic. “–and I noticed you have a security camera in the parking lot. Would it be possible for me to look through that footage? The hardware store told me I could look at theirs, but of course it’s broken.”

Sarah’s ears perk up. Security camera? How did she not notice that?

“Of course,” the woman says. “Something’s always broken at that place.”

“Kind of ironic for a hardware store, isn’t it?” Landon asks with a laugh.

“You’re telling me.”

“I could have one of our lawyers draft a subpoena,” Landon goes on, “but since the camera only looks out at the parking lot and the street, I figured it wouldn’t be too much trouble for me to have a peek at a few hours of the footage.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem at all, sir. Let me go in the back and see if I can access the footage for you.”

“Thank you. But don’t let me keep you from helping this patient.”

Sarah looks up, as the receptionist glares at her across the small, sterile waiting area.

“She isn’t a patient,” the receptionist explains scornfully, before she disappears into a back room.

As soon as she is gone, Sarah bolts up from her chair and hurries toward Landon.

“I told you not to come in here,” she whispers.

“I was watching through the windows and noticed you were getting shut down. And then I saw that camera while I was finishing the chocolate glazed. Sorry about that.”

“I don’t care about the donut!”

Landon checks that the receptionist is still in the back and then says, in a louder voice, “Ma’am, I really think you should leave if you have no business here. This clinic has important work to do!”

Sarah rolls her eyes and then says, quietly, “Give me the keys.”

“Don’t drive off without me,” Landon tells her as he pulls his keys from the pocket of his jeans. “I’m gonna need some time to look through the footage. You can finish the Boston cream if you want.”

She snatches the keys from him. “I’m good. And Landon?”

“Yeah?”

“Good luck. And thank you,” she says before exiting the facility.

Landon turns back toward the counter to wait for the receptionist and smiles to himself.

END OF EPISODE 1228

Does Landon have a future as a P.I.?
Did Matt make a useful point to Tori?
How will Gabrielle’s enthusiasm go over?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

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