Previously…
– Tempest was furious after learning that it was Diane who tracked down Hank, the biological father of Yvette’s baby, and brought him to King’s Bay — especially after Hank decided to let Alex and Trevor raise the child.
– Tori nearly called things off with Zane due to his lack of interest in spending time alone with her, but he won her back with flowers and an apology. He was all too happy to rub the reunion in Sarah’s face.
– Matt shared with Sarah a letter that he received, which seemed to threaten her late father’s legacy.

As she turns the doorknob of her parents’ house, Sarah Fisher Gray’s muscles tense into tight cords. Though she is grateful for the romantic dinner that she and her husband just shared at Windmills – and the way that they have been reconnecting as of late – she cannot stop thinking about the letter that Matt showed her. Now that they are home, there is something that she has to do, even if she would prefer to avoid the conversation altogether.

“Tori? Is that you?” Paula’s voice calls from the living room.

“No, Mom, it’s us,” Sarah responds as she kicks off her shoes. Behind her, Matt closes and locks the door.

Paula appears at the doorway that links the entryway to the living room. “Home so soon? How was dinner?”

“It was great,” Matt says. “Thanks for watching Billy.”

“You could have stayed out later. It’s no trouble. He’s watching one of his shows in the den now. I hope you don’t mind, but I let him have some ice cream…”

“Not at all,” Sarah says with a smile. She realizes that she Is offering her mother a reassuring smile even before delivering the bad news, as if preemptively attempting to soften the blow. “I bet he loved that.”

“Oh, he did.”

A tense quiet falls over the three of them; at least, that is how it feels to Sarah, and she suspects it is the same for Matt. They trade a look.

“Mom, there’s something Matt and I need to talk about with you,” Sarah says.

She watches the lines of concern deepen across her mother’s face. “What’s the matter, dear?” Paula glances at Matt, as if searching for another clue. “Did something happen while you were out?”

“No,” Matt says. “It’s…” He hesitates, searching for his words as he often must do. “Wanna go in the living room?”

“Yeah. Let’s sit down,” Sarah says. She leads the way to the sofa, and Paula takes a seat in the center. Sarah and Matt flank her.

“Please tell me what’s going on,” Paula says, her tone turning to one of desperation. “What’s happened? Is someone sick?”

They both shake their hands. Matt picks up the jacket that he only seconds ago tossed over the arm of the sofa. From its inside pocket, he takes out an envelope.

“It’s about this,” he says as he removes the folded letter from the envelope.

Paula reaches out and snatches it from him. With trembling hands, she unfolds it. Sarah can’t bear to wait another moment, to let her mother go through this uncertainty.

“It’s about the restaurant,” she says. “We only have 90 days before we have to close down Harbor Boulevard.”

—–

“Sorry that took me so long,” Samantha Fisher says as she enters the apartment that Tempest Banks shares with Claire Fisher. “Traffic coming back from the hospital was awful.”

“All good,” Tempest says. “How’s Spencer?”

Samantha sighs as she sets her purse on the end table. “There’s no change. Claire came in while I was visiting him. She says the doctors’ prognosis hasn’t changed.”

“So he’s gonna wake up.”

“They think he will.” Samantha sticks her car keys into the purse as she recalls the image of Spencer, lying in his hospital bed, eyes closed and body motionless, as he has been for weeks upon weeks. “Every day that goes by, though… it gets a little harder to have faith in that. You know?”

“Mm-hmm.” Tempest nods as she returns to her seat on the couch. “But he’s held on this long. With my mom, it was…” She stares off into space for several seconds, then snaps her fingers as a mournful expression settles on her face.

Samantha joins her girlfriend on the couch and rubs her shoulder. “I know it must be hard for you to relive all that right now. I wish things had been different for your mom.”

“Me, too. Yeah.”

With the tension of so many things unsaid and so many difficult events hanging over them like noxious fumes, Samantha simply watches Tempest. There was a time when she was unaccustomed to seeing much emotion at all from the other young woman; now, however, she is able to see into those silences, to interpret the small shifts in Tempest’s eyes and the twitches in her facial muscles.

“Hey,” Samantha begins softly, nervous to broach the subject. “Have you thought at all about going to see your brother?”

Tempest throws her a leery look, but when she speaks, her voice is calmer than Samantha expected. “I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t know if I’m ready yet. But I will. You heard anything?”

“It sounds like he’s doing well. Alex and Trevor… I know you didn’t want them to get custody, but I do think they love him and they’re doing a great job.”

“I bet they are.” Tempest’s tone is free of bitterness or sarcasm, something that mere weeks ago seemed unthinkable. “They’re good guys. I like them. And I bet they’re gonna be great dads. I’ve just gotta get used to this whole thing.”

Samantha gives Tempest’s shoulder another squeeze. “Well, whenever you’re ready, I’m more than happy to go see Chase with you. We can even bring him a little present.”

Tempest grins. “I like that idea.”

As her entire body relaxes, Samantha says, “I’m so glad you’re coming around to this. Maybe everything really did work out for the best, considering…”

Now, Tempest’s head swivels toward her, and an all-too-familiar fire catches wind behind her eyes. “I’m still not okay with that bullshit your mom pulled.”

“I didn’t mean…” Samantha fumbles over what she is trying to say. “It’s just that, everyone is going to be okay. Chase is going to have a good life. You and I are okay. We’re all safe. Things will be fine. They’ll be good.”

“No thanks to your mom,” Tempest responds. “If you think I’m ever gonna forgive her for butting in on something that wasn’t any of her damn business to begin with – and making me see that bastard Hank again – you’ve got another thing coming.”

—–

“Okay, you were right,” Tori Gray tells Zane Tanaka as they walk down the sidewalk of a street in downtown King’s Bay.

Zane turns to her with a smirk. “How could I have been wrong? It’s a donut with ice cream inside. How would that not be good?!”

“I dunno. I thought it might be too much.”

“No such thing.”

The nighttime summer sky, still a vibrant blue despite the late hour, hangs over them as they stroll. The streets remain busy with people visiting the restaurants, bars, and other establishments that make the city’s small downtown area so lively.

“And thanks for dinner. It was great,” Tori says as she reaches out and threads her fingers through Zane’s.

He glances down and smiles at their joined hands. “My pleasure.”

“What do you want to do now?” she asks.

Zane stops walking and turns toward her, their hands still knit together. He shrugs. “What do you have in mind?”

“How about a movie? There’s that theatre right on the next street.”

“I could do a movie.”

They resume walking and round the corner. The theatre’s marquee hangs over the sidewalk, lit up despite the brightness outside. They stop and crane their necks to study the movie names spelled out in black letters.

“Anything jumping out at you?” Zane asks after a few seconds.

“Umm… yeah. How about–”

“Don’t say it. Let me guess.” Zane reads over the titles again. “Playing Koi. You were totally gonna say Playing Koi, right?”

She wrinkles her nose. “Okay. You got me.”

He shakes his head. “A romantic comedy about Katherine Heigl being sentenced to do community service in a Japanese garden? Really?”

“Yeah! It’s gonna be terrible. How can we not see it?”

“Wait. Terrible?”

Tori’s brown eyes go wide. “Yes! We should see it to make fun of it.” She waits for him to respond, then exclaims, “You thought I wanted to see it because I think it’s gonna be good? What kind of person do you think I am?!”

Through his laughter, Zane manages to say, “I’m just surprised. Relieved. Really. Have I told you how much I love making fun of shitty movies?”

“You do? I knew I liked you.”

They grin wordlessly at one another for a long moment.

“Why don’t we get tickets?” Tori says.

“Let’s do it. And popcorn.”

“Popcorn? We just ate donuts filled with ice cream!”

“And I was right about those, wasn’t I? Trust me. You’re going to want popcorn for this trainwreck,” he says as he leads her by the hand toward the theatre’s lobby.

—–

“My goodness,” Paula says as she lowers the letter to her lap. “How can they do this?”

Sarah leans forward, her elbows on her knees. “The lease is up in 90 days. There’s nothing keeping the landlord from selling the building for redevelopment instead of renewing the tenants’ leases.”

“I know, but…” Paula brings her index and middle finger to her right temple. “It’s so little notice. What are we supposed to do?”

“We’ll find a space,” Matt says. “We’ll find someplace good.”

“Yes…” The older woman trails off as she stares down at the piece of paper in her hand. “But your father chose this space. He oversaw every single element of this restaurant. It was… it is his.”

Sarah thought that she understood the severity of this news, but watching her mother react to it drives home an entirely new level of comprehension. No matter what they do, there will never be another restaurant that is really, truly her father’s. Not in the way that this one is.

“He was so devastated when the other restaurant was destroyed,” Paula continues as tears well in her eyes. Sarah and Matt both bow their heads solemnly; the memories of Nick Moriani detonating a bomb at The Fisherman’s Pier – and all the damage it caused in their lives – loom large even to this day. “I thought he might never recover from that. But he did. He found a space that he loved, he came up with a new menu, and… my goodness, he named it after a street that was so important early on in our relationship.”

Sarah touches her mother’s forearm. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure this out.”

“Maybe we can reason with the landlord,” Paula says.

Matt casts a look at his wife over Paula’s head. A wordless understanding passes between them: that real estate is prime development land. Unless they are somehow able to come up with the millions to buy not only the restaurant, but the entire building – which stretches for half a city block – there is almost no chance of this being a realistic possibility.

“I’ll see what I can find out,” Sarah offers.

Paula’s tears begin to fall more freely. “I can’t lose this last piece of your father. I can’t.”

“We’re gonna figure this out,” Matt says with firm resolve. “For Bill. We have to.”

They cluster around Paula as she continues to cry.

—–

The sheer force of Tempest’s declaration takes Samantha by surprise. She sits up straighter on the couch as she attempts to gather her thoughts.

“You said yourself that you just have to get used to how things turned out,” Samantha says. “With time–”

“I’m not just gonna forget what your mother did!”

Again, Tempest’s ferocity takes Samantha by surprise. The words blow out of her like a hurricane on the warpath.

“I’m sorry that you had to see that man,” Samantha says, “and I know my mom is, too. If you’d give her the chance, she would let you know how sorry she is. She’d make it up to you.”

“She can’t. Never.”

“Tempest…”

“What? No one gets to play God with my life. And not her. Especially not her.”

“What does that mean?”

Tempest exaggerates a roll of her eyes. “After everything she’s done. Like she’s got any right to talk about who’s ready to be a parent.”

Samantha suddenly feels her own blood boiling. “That’s my mom you’re talking about.”

“And you know damn well how messy she can be,” Tempest fires right back. “Remember how she almost got arrested for working at that drug front bookstore? Or how she fell in the wedding cake at Ryan and Danielle’s wedding? Or any of the other crazy bullshit she’s pulled over the years? It’s a miracle you turned out okay.”

“My mom isn’t perfect, but she loves me and she’s done right by me,” Samantha says. “Even after she lost custody of me when I was little, she changed her life and got me back. You’re upset that you got the rug pulled out from under you and that you had to see Hank. I don’t blame you for that. And my mom is sorry. But I’m not going to sit here and let you–”

“Then don’t.” Tempest pops to her feet. “No one’s making you sit here.”

Samantha feels as though a heavy weight drops onto her chest. “That isn’t what I meant.”

“You should go,” Tempest says sternly. When Samantha doesn’t budge, she repeats, “Go.”

“I don’t want to leave things like this.”

Tempest simply folds her arms. As great as the sense of dread inside Samantha is at this unexpected fight, she also feels an increasing amount of fury. She knows that Diane overstepped her bounds, and Diane knows that, but Tempest is so unwilling to acknowledge that and try to mend fences. And for her to act as if Diane is a horrible mother isn’t fair.

“You know what? I will go,” she says as she rises from the couch. “We could both use some time to cool down. But if you’re looking for me to just agree that my mom is a terrible person… I’m not going to do it.”

“Fine.”

They stare one another down, and Samantha summons enough of her inner strength to grab her purse and reach for the doorknob.

“I love you,” she says, with the door open.

“I love you, too,” Tempest says after a moment’s hesitation. Hearing that is enough for Samantha to feel okay about leaving, so she steps out into the hallway and closes the door behind herself. Once she is out there and alone, everything inside her begins to scream even louder, but she makes herself head for the elevator.

Back inside the apartment, Tempest fumes. The argument replays in her head. How can Sam not see that snake Diane for what she is? As their words careen around inside her head, one sentence keeps circling back and replaying itself…

Even after she lost custody of me when I was little, she changed her life and got me back.

Did she really? Tempest wonders. She’s heard so much about how Diane is always causing trouble, sometimes from Sam herself.

And then part of that jumps out at her even more: Lost custody? Tempest has always been vaguely aware that there was a time when Tim was thought to be dead and Claire was raising Samantha, but she’s never known – or thought to ask about – any of the details.

“Maybe it’s time for that to change,” she mutters. “Maybe then you’ll believe me about her.” Her pulse quickens as she moves to the computer.

END OF EPISODE 883

What is going through Tempest’s head now?
Can Matt and Sarah save the restaurant?
Can Tori and Zane forge real relationship?
Share your thoughts on this episode below!

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