Previously…
– Travis and Rosie’s marriage remained on shaky ground in the wake of losing Gabrielle.
– Isaac arranged for a DNA test to determine whether Sienna’s daughter, Noelle, is really his.
– Tori accompanied Landon to Idaho to find Sonja and TJ, in hopes of bringing them back to King’s Bay. Sonja was resistant — but then they informed her that Loretta Ragan was dead.

The salty breeze off the bay rustles Rosie Jimenez‘s loose ponytail as she steps over the wooden slats of Pier 22. As she approaches the entry of Bill’s on the Pier, she makes note of how quiet the place seems: there were only a few cars in the parking lot, and there are hardly any signs of life from within the restaurant. She can see lights inside, but there is no sense of music playing or diners chattering; all she can hears are the distant cries of gulls and the water lapping lightly at the pilings below.

Rosie’s senses tingle even more forcefully when she reaches the front door and sees that the sign is flipped to CLOSED. Alarmed that something has happened, she shifts into police mode as she pulls open the door, and the first thing she does is check the corner behind the door to make sure it is clear. Luckily, it is.

She takes a few steps inside, past the host’s stand, scanning the place as thoroughly as she can. The faint scent of fried fish hangs in the air, but there are no diners, no conversation, no chaos from the back area. The chairs are all tucked in neatly at the copper-topped tables.

A flash of movement captures her attention, and she looks to the swinging double doors that lead to the kitchen.

“There you are,” her husband says, his voice more sheepish than perturbed.

“Travis,” she says, exhaling as his name slips out. “What’s going on? Why did you call me here?”

“Because I wanted to see you.”

“Where is everyone? What’s going on?”

He grins. “We’re closed tonight.”

“Then why are you–“

“Because I wanted to do this for you,” he says, walking toward her. He wears the same white chef’s jacket that he usually wears for work, but instead of the black pants that he normally pairs with it, he has on a pair of khakis. Peeking out over the jacket’s color, Rosie can make out a red-and-blue checked shirt.

“Tonight is for you,” Travis tells her, as he softly takes her by the hand and leads her to one of the tables, which she now realizes is the only one with place settings laid out. “I want to keep working on us and reconnecting. I hope that’s okay.”

Rosie looks around, seeing the empty restaurant in a new light now.

“Of course it’s okay,” she says, relaxing as a smile spreads over her face. “It’s more than okay.”

——

The silence in Tim Fisher‘s house feels swollen, heavy with so many things unspoken. The decorative wall clock in the entryway ticks by with excruciating slowness. Tim stands near the door, arms crossed tight over his chest, shifting his weight back and forth from foot to foot. Claire Fisher comes in from the kitchen.

“They’ll be here soon,” she tells him softly.

His face hardened with tension, Tim turns. “Not soon enough.”

Outside, the dark of the Pacific Northwest evening has overtaken the neighborhood. Every time a pair of headlights cut through it, Tim’s attention snaps toward the front window.

“I hope Sonja didn’t pull something,” he says.

“Landon assured you that they had it under control,” Claire reminds him. “He’s driving Sonja and TJ in his car, and Tori is driving Sonja’s car. It’s not like she can just peel off.”

Tim sighs. “She’s done crazier things before.”

They remain in that uneasy quiet until more headlights illuminate the street through the front window. Then those headlight take aim at the house; a moment later, they fade into nothingness. Claire comes to Tim’s side as they hear the scrambling of car doors opening and closing outside. Unable to wait any longer, Tim yanks open the front door of the house as Landon Esco leads Sonja Kahele and TJ up the stone path.

“You’re really here,” Tim exclaims as he steps outside.

“Everyone’s here,” Landon assures him.

Sonja’s gaze flickers up from the ground, and she offers Tim a wan smile.

He waves them all inside. “Come on, come on. It’s cold out.”

He holds the door as the three of them file inside. Tori Gray hurries up the driveway and into the house.

“I can’t thank you guys enough,” Tim says quietly to his niece as she crosses the threshold.

“You’re welcome, Uncle Tim. We know how important this is.”

As soon as Tim steps back inside the house, his attention goes to TJ. The little boy has grown so much in the months since Tim saw him, and he clutches his mother’s hand as he looks up at Tim.

“Remember me, TJ?” Tim asks hopefully. “I’m so happy to see you.”

The toddler nods slowly; he is clearly still processing his change of scenery and seeing the father he barely knows once again.

Claire steps around Tim to close and lock the door.

“I’m so sorry about all this,” Sonja says. Her voice is thick with emotion. “I’ve been so scared.”

“Of Loretta?” Tim asks. “She’s gone now.”

“Why don’t we take TJ into the kitchen for a snack?” Tori suggests, elbowing Landon in the side.

“Yeah, bet we can find something good in your dad’s fridge,” Landon says. “Wanna try, TJ?”

TJ bobs his head up and down excitedly.

“Thanks, you guys,” Tim tells them as they lead TJ toward the kitchen. Sonja holds onto the little boy’s hand for a moment too long, as if afraid to let him go even a room away without her.

“He’ll be okay,” Tim says to Sonja.

“I know he will.” Sonja knits her fingers together nervously. “I’m sorry about all this, I really am.”

Claire places a comforting hand on Tim’s back.

“I need to know that it won’t happen again,” he says sternly.

“It won’t. I never wanted to keep TJ from you.” Sonja’s brown eyes brim with emotion, just like her voice.

“Loretta is really, truly dead,” Claire adds. “You can finally relax.”

“Yes,” Sonja says, though she sounds just as burdened as ever. “But that’s the thing.”

Tim and Claire both look at her with confusion.

“There’s something else you need to know,” Sonja continues. “Something important.”

—–

Diane Bishop strides over the second-floor landing toward her condominium, her high heels clicking against the concrete. As soon as she lets herself in, she sees Isaac Banks sitting there on the pink velvet sofa, his laptop perched on his knees.

“What’s going on?” she asks, recognizing the dazed look in his eyes immediately.

Isaac slowly places the laptop on the coffee table. “I just got an alert from the hospital portal.”

Diane stiffens. “Good or bad news?”

“Good? I think?” His elbows now plant themselves on his thighs. “It was a match. Noelle’s my daughter.”

“Wow.” Diane nods continuously as she processes the enormity of this news. She watches Isaac nearly folding in on himself and declares, “We’ll figure this out. We’ll fight.”

He looks up sharply. “Fight?”

“For custody. You don’t trust Sienna, right?”

“I’m not ripping a little girl away from her mother,” he says.

“It happened to me with Samantha,” Diane reminds him. “Frankly, Tim and Claire might’ve had the right idea, as much as I loathed them for it at the time. I was in no state to raise Sam responsibly. The fact that I had to fight to get her back forced me to pull my shit together.”

He considers this for the briefest moment, then says, “That’s not what I want. Especially not after the way Tempest and I grew up. Our mom was basically half a parent at her best. If Noelle can have both of us…”

“Then we can make that work, too,” Diane reasons. She steps around the coffee table and takes a seat beside him on the sofa, sitting so close that their legs touch. “Sorry, my gut instinct is always to go for the jugular.”

He smirks. “I’ve noticed.”

“But you’re right, going nuclear might not be the move here. We can play this smarter.”

“How?” he asks trepidatiously.

“One step at a time,” she assures him. “Whatever you need, I’m here. Whether that’s going to battle for you, or taking on Sienna, or standing back and cheering you on.”

“Wow,” Isaac says, staring her right in the face.

“What?”

“You really must care about me–“

“Of course I do.”

“–because I’ll be damned if Diane Bishop ever stands back and stays out of anything,” he finishes with a laugh.

“You’ve got a point there,” Diane says. “And you’re right: I do care a hell of a lot about you, Isaac. And you’re a dad now. It’s a lot to figure out. But I promise we can do it together.”

—–

“Thank you for doing this,” Rosie tells Travis. A short votive candle burns at the center of the table, and their plates are nearly cleared, bearing only the scant remains of the lobster pasta and arugula salad that Travis prepared for them.

He smiles over the table at her. “You’re welcome. Thanks for coming and joining me.”

“You had me thinking there was some emergency, so of course I came down here.” She snickers. “But it was a good fake-out.”

Travis considers her in silence as the soft candlelight flickers against her skin.

“I want to get past this, Travis,” she says.

“The meal? It was that bad?” He can’t even keep a straight face as he lobs the question at her.

“Smartass. The meal was amazing.” She reaches over the table and takes his hand. “I mean this– this thing we’ve been stuck in.”

Travis suddenly feels like his heart is being squeezed — a physical agony that he has come to know all too well in the last few years.

After a pause, he manages to say, “We lost our daughter. It’s not supposed to be easy to come back from that.”

“I just want you to know that I want that, too. I want us to be… maybe not how we were, but like how we were. We’re a team, Travis.”

As she gazes into his eyes, Travis finds his mind straying back to his recent conversation with Elly.

Travis scowls at his ex. “Rosie’s been through hell. And it is kinda weird that she came back and we were all… civil.”

“It’s kinda weird she skipped town without even telling you,” Elly retorts.

“I know. But she’s back, and I want things to go back to normal. Badly. So if she asks you–“

“Don’t worry about it,” Elly says, clutching the open door of her apartment.

“I need you to promise me,” Travis presses on, undeterred. “You cannot even give Rosie a hint about what happened that night.”

He brushes the thoughts aside as best he can. “You have no idea how happy that makes me. There’s no one I want to be a team with more than you.”

She squeezes his hand and then sits back in her chair. “How about I help you clean this up so we can get out of here?”

“We still have dessert,” he replies.

“Is it something that we can bring home?”

“Um… I guess. Yeah. Are you full?”

“No…” She leans forward, a grin toying with her lips. “But I was thinking there might be another course we could fit in between dinner and dessert. Especially since my mom won’t be home until late tonight because of her book club.”

“I like the way you think,” Travis says as he springs to his feet.

—–

Tim’s voice is thin with exhaustion as he asks, “What is it, Sonja? What else do we need to know?”

Claire holds onto his arm, a silent reminder to him to remain calm.

“I’ve been in a panic,” Sonja says, her eyelashes batting rapidly. “It’s TJ. He’s been sick.”

“Sick how?” Tim asks with sudden intensity.

“It started small,” Sonja explains. “He got strep throat three times in a year–“

“I remember when he was sick before you– before you left town,” Claire says.

“It kept happening. And then I noticed he was getting bruised really easily. You know how little kids are. They get banged up all the time. But it seemed extreme.”

“Sonja, what’s wrong with him?” Tim demands.

Heavy emotion emanates from Sonja as she finds her words. “It kept happening. More infections, headaches, lightheadedness… I was getting so desperate that I took him to an Urgent Care.”

“In Sandpoint,” Tim says.

Sonja furrows her brow. “How’d you know that?”

“Sarah had gotten a lead on you, but by the time she got there, it was too late,” he explains. “Sonja, what did the doctors say?”

“They’ve had to do all these tests, and it’s… I can’t even say the words.”

“You and I are both medical professionals,” Claire says. “We can figure out whatever this is.”

“I’m so scared,” Sonja says, tears pooling in her eyes as her throat becomes tight. “Our little boy… he has aplastic anemia.”

END OF EPISODE 1251

How will TJ’s condition affect Tim and Claire?
Will Rosie learn Travis and Elly’s secret?
How will being a father change Isaac’s life?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!