Previously…
– Elly came up with the idea for Spencer and Natalie to get married so that Spencer wouldn’t face charges for kidnapping Peter.
– Natalie and Spencer were stunned when Jason filed a suit for full custody of Peter.
– Spencer asked Tim to try and reason with Jason.

Spencer Ragan grasps the metal handle and pulls open the surprisingly heavy wooden door. It reveals a small anteroom, with a counter and an area that he presumes will be used for a coat check. A pair of saloon doors sit just beyond that, and when he swings through them, he discovers an expanse of newly varnished wood floor, still devoid of furniture.

He spots Elly Vanderbilt in the middle of the bar that will soon be known as the Wild Lady, with her hands on her hips.

“About a foot to the left!” she calls out, and Spencer follows her eye toward the far wall, where two men are hanging a print of a ZZ Top album cover.

“Your other left,” Elly says with barely concealed irritation.

As she watches the men shift the print, Spencer approaches her.

“It’s really coming together in here,” he comments.

Elly turns toward him. “It is. My dad and Kathleen have their hands full, so I’m trying to do what I can to help.”

“That’s nice of you.”

“That’s perfect!” she tells the workers, who begin to hang the print. Elly folds her arms. “So what did you do now?”

“Excuse me?”

“You texted asking where I was,” she says. “I’m assuming this isn’t a light social call.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Then why’d you need to come over here on your lunch break and see me?”

He fiddles momentarily with the knot of his tie.

“I don’t have all day, Spencer.”

“I have something to ask you,” he says. “A proposal of sorts.”

Elly raises an eyebrow. “Should I be worried?”

“No,” Spencer tells her. “Because this could be very beneficial to you, too.”

—–

Paula Fisher smacks her purse down on the kitchen island with a fire that matches the expression on her face.

“What in the world are you thinking?” she demands.

Her youngest child stares back at her from the other side of the island. Jason presses his palms down on the granite top.

“I’m looking out for Peter’s best interests,” he says. “Biology be damned — he’s my son, too.”

Paula looks around her son’s kitchen in confusion, as if a solution might magically be pinned to one of the oak-colored cabinets or stainless steel appliances.

“You’re putting your brother in a terrible position with this custody suit,” she finally says.

Jason’s eyebrows lift in exasperation. “Excuse me if my life being ripped apart isn’t all about Tim.”

“That isn’t what I mean.”

He takes a moment to gather himself and replies in a more restrained tone, “Besides, I’m not going to keep Tim and Claire from seeing Peter. He’s biologically their grandson. I’m not denying that.”

“You just want to keep him from his parents, then.”

“I have been his parent for over two years!” Jason says, rapidly regaining his head of steam. “Anyone who cares about him shouldn’t want him growing up in that nuthouse. It isn’t safe.”

“I understand your concern,” Paula says delicately, “but things have been all right since Spencer and Natalie got married.”

“Wow, they haven’t managed to kill him or inflict visible emotional trauma yet. Congrats.” Jason claps sarcastically. “He’s your great-grandson, and that environment doesn’t concern you? Spencer kidnapped him and ran off to some seedy motel!”

“They swear that isn’t how it happened.”

“He got a liar like Natalie to cover for him — probably by agreeing to let her spend his money. That doesn’t mean anything.”

Paula falls silent again. Her hands grasp the top of her purse, working the leather as though she might be able to knead the situation itself into submission.

“Honey,” she says, “you are going to tear this family apart.”

“Natalie has already done her damnedest to make that happen,” Jason tells her, “and Spencer was all too happy to pitch in. Don’t blame me for trying to protect Peter. And if you’re going to, you can get out of my house.”

—–

Claire Fisher flips the thick page of the children’s book.

“And then the zoo sent me an…” She uses her index finger to pull up the tab that is decorated like a box.

“Elephant!” Peter Fisher squeals with excitement. Already pressed up against his grandmother, he presses even harder into her as he shouts. Instead of causing her discomfort, however, the move causes Claire to smile.

“That’s right,” she says softly. The pair sits on the floor of Spencer and Natalie’s living room, Claire’s back against the black Chesterfield sofa.

“Sounds like you guys are having fun in here,” Natalie observes from the doorway.

Claire turns her head with a smile. “We are.”

“Let me see!” Peter says suddenly, as he grabs the book from Claire and flips madly through the pages, furiously checking what other animals lie beneath the tabs.

“Careful with that,” Natalie warns the toddler.

Claire happily watches her grandson for another few seconds, then pulls herself to her feet.

“Thanks for coming to hang out with him,” Natalie says, with an awkward edge to her voice.

“Of course. He’s my only grandchild, and I already missed so much time with him.”

Natalie chews on her bottom lip. “I’m sorry about that. I screwed up, and I can’t take it back.”

“Yes, you did.” Claire quietly regards the other woman for a long moment; it is still strange to think of Natalie as her daughter-in-law, but that is exactly what she is. “And you’re right: we can’t change what happened.”

“I’m doing my best, Claire,” Natalie says with annoyance.

“I know.” She watches as Natalie reacts to her tone with surprise.

“I don’t want to create any more upheaval than there has already been,” Claire continues. “Especially not for Peter. And, despite everything, I do think you’re a good mother.”

“Thank you for saying that. All I want is to give Peter and Bree the best life that I can.”

“Good. Then your focus is in the right place.”

Natalie glances at Peter, who is still occupied with his book.

“If that’s how you feel,” she says, “will you support us in this custody suit? Will you help us keep Jason from taking Peter away?”

—–

“You want me to join your legal team?” Elly asks with a healthy dose of suspicion. “Why would I do that?”

“Because you need a job,” Spencer responds.

She fumbles over her words for a moment and then gestures around the bar. “I’m doing this right now.”

Spencer rolls his eyes. “You didn’t go to Stanford Law to help open a bar.”

“I’m helping my dad.” Elly lets out a huff. “So what’s the catch?”

“Nothing. My attorney — and Natalie’s — suggested it would be helpful to have you on the team. You could bill your hours, obviously.”

“It sounds like there are enough overpriced cooks in that kitchen.” She barely finishes the statement before her eyes widen with comprehension. “Ah! There we go.”

“What?”

A self-satisfied grin crosses her face. “Because I’m a liability. If I look like I’m not a permanent member of your team, Jason could use that as evidence that there was something fishy about you and Natalie getting married.”

“See? Those brilliant powers of deduction are exactly why we need you!” Spencer says.

Elly looks around the bar, focusing on the other musician prints that the workers have hung in the time it took Spencer to tell her about Jason’s custody suit and give his pitch.

“I don’t want to get mixed up in this any further,” she finally says. “It sounds like some kind of Fisher Civil War.”

“I’m not the one who started it!”

“I didn’t say you were. But why would I want to get involved in your mess, Spencer?”

“Billable hours. Credit on a real case. That’ll be huge as you start your career.”

Elly hesitates, and Spencer takes it as a sign that he might be able to reel her in.

“Besides,” he adds, “it’s a cause you believe in. You don’t think Jason should be able to take Peter away from Natalie and me completely, do you? You wouldn’t have come to that motel and helped me if you believed that.”

“I came to that motel because you had kidnapped a toddler you didn’t have custody of and I didn’t know what else to do.”

“But then you helped me because you thought I deserved a chance to raise my son — and that Peter deserved to know his biological parents.”

She hesitates again as she runs a hand over her red hair.

“Come on, Elly. Please. You not being there is basically putting a target on us that Jason and his lawyer are going to aim right at.”

Tension ripples between them until Elly exhales loudly.

“I’ll think about it. Okay?”

“Good. Great.” Spencer claps his hands together. “Thank you.”

“Just one thing,” she says.

“What?”

“My hourly rate is steep.”

Noticing her grin, he can’t help but grin back.

“We can work with that,” Spencer says, allowing himself a tentative sense of relief.

—–

Paula stares at her son. No matter how hard she tries, she cannot quite reconcile the iciness of his voice and his eyes with the man that she raised.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she tells Jason, as she moves around the island to close the physical gap between them. She grasps his hand, and although he flinches, he does not pull away.

“But you think I’m making a mistake,” he says.

“I didn’t say that.” Paula draws in a breath as she contemplates her next words very carefully. “There are things that you can’t take back, though. Things you can’t undo.”

“I can’t undo the fact that Spencer is Peter’s biological father… but that doesn’t mean I have to play by his and Natalie’s rules.”

She squeezes his hand; it is the only immediate thing she can think of to show her support for him.

“I say all of this out of love,” she says. “For you, for Peter, for Sophie, for Tim, and, yes, for Spencer.”

Jason gazes down at a smudge on the granite countertop.

“I know you’ve been through a lot of painful things lately,” Paula continues, “and that you’re grieving. And it– well, it reminds me of how you were after we lost Courtney.”

His eyes snap up to meet hers.

“You’re acting from a very emotional place,” she says. “Those emotions make complete sense. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t feel them. I just hope that you’ll think long and hard about what you really want out of this situation, and about what’s the best way to get that and not burn bridges that can’t be rebuilt.”

An uneasy silence fills the kitchen.

“I miss him,” Jason says, his voice cracking. “I miss my son.”

“I know you do.” Paula wraps her arms around him and draws him toward her. “I am so sorry about what’s happened, honey. You didn’t deserve any of this.”

“I hate this.”

“So do I, Jason. So do I.”

Paula continues to hold him, rocking back-and-forth ever so gently. She knows that there is nothing more she can do for him in this moment.

—–

Claire watches Peter playing on the living room floor.

“Claire, I can’t lose my son,” Natalie says, her desperation searing through despite the way she half-whispers to keep the boy from hearing her. “I’m sure you can understand that, after what that maniac Loretta did to you and Tim.”

“Of course I can understand it.” Uncomfortably, Claire turns her body half-away from Natalie. “But I’ve also known and loved Jason for a long time. He was a teenager when I came into the family. Seeing the way you hurt him–”

“You already said that we can’t change what happened.” Natalie’s face scrunches up. “My father is lying in the hospital dying, and now I could lose my son…”

“How is he?” Claire asks. “Your father. The last Samantha told me, he was conscious.”

“He is,” Natalie says. “But they still aren’t releasing him. I don’t know if they ever will. He’s so weak.”

Claire sighs. “I’m really sorry about your father. But I also can’t promise you that I’m going to take sides in this — especially against Jason.”

“Not even for your own son?”

“It’s more complicated than that, and you know it, Natalie.”

“Jason is the one forcing anyone to take sides in the first place,” Natalie says, with a note of petulance that irks Claire.

“Then what you need to do — what you and Spencer need to do together, if you really are partners in this — is work with Jason. Like it or not, he isn’t just going to stop feeling like he’s Peter’s father because a birth certificate gets legally changed. He’s hurting — and that’s on you.”

Natalie’s shoulders sag beneath her heather gray LuluLemon top.

“Just promise me you won’t side with him over me,” she says. “Over Spencer and me, I mean. We deserve to raise our son.”

“I’m not going to take sides, and I’m not going to turn on anyone,” Claire says. “And I don’t think we should talk about this in front of Peter anymore. I only have a little bit of time left to spend with him today — and he’s what’s really important here.”

Without giving Natalie a chance to respond, Claire kneels back down to join her grandson on the floor.

END OF EPISODE 965

Can there be a positive outcome to the custody suit?
Has Jason gone too far by filing for custody?
Will Elly regret entertaining Spencer’s proposal?
Discuss it all in the comments below!

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