Previously…
– Jason filed a lawsuit against Natalie and Spencer for full custody of Peter, sending shockwaves through the Fisher family.
– During a night out, Samantha received word that her grandfather’s health had taken a turn for the worse, and Jaq accompanied her to the hospital for moral support.
– Matt secretly intercepted a text that Zane sent to Tori and then convinced both of them to sign the papers that will allow Tori to place her child for adoption.

On the 18th floor of Winston Tower in downtown King’s Bay, Molly Taylor is positioned behind her standing desk. Her pristinely manicured nails click away at her wireless keyboard as she holds her iPhone between her ear and shoulder.

“It might not even go to court,” she is saying into the phone. “Once this initial animosity calms down…”

The natural pause that she inserts into the statement is enough of an opening for the voice on the other end to launch into another flurry of concerns.

“Conrad thinks it’s entirely possible they’ll all come to a resolution on their own,” Molly is finally able to reply. “This will work out, Mom.”

A knock at the door pulls her attention away from the e-mail on her computer screen.

“Come in!” Molly calls out. Instead of her assistant, however, she sees her niece standing there.

Seeing that Molly is on the phone, Samantha holds up the red folder in her hand.

“Samantha’s actually here,” Molly says into the phone, “so I should go. Try and relax, okay?” She wraps up the call as Samantha closes the door and stands politely.

“Trevor asked me to bring you the new edits for the Conviction items going up on the website,” Samantha explains.

With a warm smile, Molly waves her over. “Thank you! I can’t wait to see what you guys did with these.”

As Samantha hands over the folder, she asks, “That was Grandma on the phone?”

“She’s twisted up in knots over this custody lawsuit. I was trying to convince her that it doesn’t have to destroy the family.”

“It feels a little like it might,” Samantha says. “I wish we could just convince Uncle Jason to back down.”

Mid-nod, Molly stops, with the folder and her hand suspended over the desk. “Convince Jason to back down?”

“Yeah. Aunt Natalie and Spencer are Peter’s parents. Regardless of what Aunt Natalie did to him, Uncle Jason shouldn’t cause more pain for everyone.”

“You can’t be serious,” Molly says as the folder hits the desk with a slap. “Jason is the one who should be raising Peter.”

A piece of classical music rides on the air, filling Edge of Winter Arena. A dozen skaters move over the ice at various speeds, each practicing his or her own skills and carefully weaving around the other athletes. Jason Fisher skates over to the rink’s door, where Bree Halston has just stepped off the ice and is affixing the plastic guards to her skate blades.

“What was going on out there today?” he asks as gently as he can. “Your triple Salchow is usually so solid.”

“I don’t know,” she grumbles.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine.” She hastily snaps the guard over her left blade and stomps away from the ice.

“Bree, wait.” Without bothering to put on his own guards, he hops off the ice and tails her over the rubber mats that cover the cement flooring. “Is this about what’s going on with Peter?”

She stops and turns to face him, her arms crossed.

“You never seem that unfocused during lessons,” he says. “Not even unfocused — angry.”

She glances both ways to be certain that no one is close enough to overhear them.

“How am I supposed to feel?” she asks.

Jason gulps as he swallows hard, anguished to see the genuine pain in the teenager’s face. He is accustomed to her being so bright and cheery, or at least so in control of her emotions, that a reaction so raw stands out even more than it otherwise might.

“Come here,” he says, and he guides her over to the skate rental counter, which is more out-of-the-way. He looks directly into her big, blue eyes. “Bree, you know I care about you like you were my own daughter. That’s how I care about Peter, too.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

He exhales heavily and feels all the weight and exhaustion of the past several months come through in that single breath.

“I’ve been Peter’s dad this entire time,” he explains softly. “And if I get custody, I’m not going to keep you from seeing him. He’s still your brother, too.”

“I’m mad at my mom, too,” Bree says, her voice taking on a pleading tone. “It’s so weird that she’s, like, married to Spencer now. But the more we keep fighting…”

“No one is fighting.”

“You guys are! My mom is freaking out about losing Peter, and my grandpa is in the hospital dying, and I’m supposed to come here and have lessons with you and act like everything is normal the way it was last summer, and…” As her frustration boils over, her rush of words dead-ends into a squeak. She throws up her hands and turns away from him.

“Bree, just hang on,” Jason says.

“I have to go change,” she says without looking back, and she hurriedly disappears into the ladies’ locker room.

Jason hangs back, his heart hurting as he realizes that there is nothing he can do in this moment to make things better for Bree.

—–

“We’re back!”

Billy Fisher’s voice rips through the house, and the thundering of his excited footsteps quickly follow. The little boy darts into the kitchen, where his stepfather is sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop and a stack of bills.

“The store was that fun, huh?” Matt Gray asks with a laugh.

Billy does his best to hoist the canvas grocery bag in his hands up onto one of the kitchen chairs.

“We got, like, three kinds of chips,” Billy tells him. “And M&Ms.”

“You don’t get to eat all of those,” Sarah Fisher Gray says, arriving behind her son with two more reusable bags full of supplies. “They’re for your sister’s cravings.”

“She went upstairs to nap,” Matt says. “Maybe twenty minutes ago.”

Sarah sets down the bags on the kitchen table. “I’m not surprised. I was tired all the time when I was pregnant.”

“So can I eat some of the chips?” Billy asks, beaming.

“If you go upstairs and wash your hands, you can have some chips,” Sarah says.

“Yay!” He clips loudly and runs out of the room.

“And don’t wake up your sister!” she warns him.

Sarah begins to unpack the groceries, and Matt stands from his chair to help her.

“I’m glad she’s resting,” Sarah says, but a note of concern lingers over her words.

“Yeah,” Matt agrees. “This whole thing has been a lot of stress.”

She opens an upper cabinet and begins moving around items to make room. “I still can’t believe they both signed the papers and this is actually happening.”

At the open refrigerator, Matt pauses as a fresh shock of guilt hits him. “Why’s that?”

“I had this horrible feeling that Zane was somehow going to convince Tori that they should raise the baby together.” Sarah stops what she is doing and eyes him. “What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean?”

“You look like you just saw a ghost, Matt.” She continues to study him and then adds, “So tell me: why do you look so nervous instead of relieved?”

—–

Flustered, Samantha looks back at her aunt.

“Jason’s a great dad,” she says somewhat timidly, “but Peter isn’t his son.”

“He’s the only father Peter knows,” Molly replies.

“That’s not completely true.” Samantha uses her index finger to push her glasses up on her nose. “Peter’s been living with Spencer and Aunt Natalie since they got married. He knows Spencer now.”

Molly steps out from behind the standing desk. “Sam, I know Natalie is your aunt and Spencer is your brother, but between the two of them…”

“He’s your nephew, too.”

Pursing her lips, Molly pauses before finally responding: “True. And he was also Philip’s brother.”

“Do you not trust him because of the car accident that Philip tried to cover up? That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t get to raise his own son.”

“Of course it doesn’t. But there’s a pretty clear pattern of instability between the two of them. Spencer might grow out of it, but I think Natalie’s well beyond that point.”

“That still doesn’t mean they should lose their son,” Samantha says, her voice taking on more assurance than it had moments ago. “That’s what Uncle Jason wants — full custody.”

“It’s very hard for me to fault him for that,” Molly says. “Especially seeing everything Conrad has to put up with in order to co-parent with Natalie.”

“You can’t really think that’s fair.”

“I don’t think it’s that cut-and-dry, no. But I support my brother. Given what he’s up against and what he’s had to go through, I don’t see how I could do anything but.”

“I wish he would back off and at least try to compromise with them,” Samantha says. “All this is doing is forcing people to take sides. That isn’t good for Peter.”

Molly nods slowly as she takes this in.

“I don’t want to see the family torn apart over this,” she says. “I’ll give you that much. But do I think Jason should back down, especially after the way Natalie played him? Absolutely not.”

Samantha lets out a long, troubled sigh. “I just hope they can figure this out soon — or it’s going to get a lot uglier for all of us.”

—–

Jason ducks into Thaw Coffee & Tea, located off the ice arena’s lobby, and orders his usual drink. He takes it and parks himself at a small table by the window that looks out into the parking lot; no matter how hard he tries to calm it, his mind races as he enjoys the drink by himself. After a few minutes, Sabrina Gage — who has been making drinks behind the counter — steps out and joins him at the table.

“Break time?” Jason asks.

“Yeah, I opened this morning,” she says. “But you knew it was almost time for my break, didn’t you?”

“Can’t say that wasn’t a factor in me popping in here,” he admits.

Sabrina narrows her eyes intently. “What’s the matter?”

He places his coffee down on the table. “Bree just blew up at me over the custody suit. And the thing is — she isn’t wrong. I know I’m the one causing all this upheaval now.”

She waits and then prompts him, “But…”

“But all I’m trying to do is right a wrong. A bunch of wrongs. How come I’m the one being blamed for trying to take back some control of my life when Natalie is the one who blew it all to hell?”

“I don’t think you’re in the wrong at all. I think it’s a really, really bad situation, but you know… sometimes you have to go all the way through the darkness to get back to the light.”

“Those are some wise words,” he says. “I just wish everyone else could see it that way. The pain and suffering didn’t just end because the truth came out. In a lot of ways, it was only just beginning — even if people don’t want to acknowledge that.”

Sabrina nods sympathetically as she folds her hands atop the table. “As far as Bree goes, she’s still a kid. Her whole world has been tossed on its head.”

“I know that. And I understand that she was lashing out at me when she really wants to lash out at her mom and Spencer — well, and me, too. It’s hard to see her in pain and know that I’m contributing to that, though.”

“Of course it does. This was never going to be smooth sailing. But if you believe, in your heart of hearts, that Peter belongs with you, then you have to do this.”

“What did I do to deserve a friend like you?”

Before Sabrina can even answer, Jason reaches across the table and places a hand on top of hers. She flinches slightly at the contact.

“Sorry,” he says quickly, pulling back. “I didn’t mean to–”

“No, it’s fine.” She offers a reassuring smile. “I’m just a jumpy person.”

“Noted. But you’re still a great friend to have at a time like this.” He lets out a little laugh. “You know, if you went back in time to when you first showed up in town and told me I’d be this grateful to have you around…”

Now Sabrina joins him in laughing. “Pretty crazy, isn’t it?”

“If there’s anything I keep learning about life, it’s that ‘crazy’ is pretty much always the case,” Jason says.

With a twinkle in her eye, she stares back at him. “You’re telling me.”

—–

Matt recognizes the tone of Sarah’s voice immediately: she is in detective mode, and when she catches a scent, there is no stopping her until she feels she’s found the solution. He hastily grabs a package of ground beef and a head of lettuce from the table and busies himself making space for them in the refrigerator.

“It’s harder than I thought, that’s all,” he chokes out as he uses the open fridge door to avoid meeting her gaze. “Knowing that we’re gonna have a grandkid out there we never know.”

His heart thumps as he waits for her to reply.

“I know,” Sarah says, suddenly more more tender. He can tell how affected she is by his statement, and a pang of guilt — what must be the 5,000th one in a few days’ time — rams into him like a wrecking ball.

“I guess that’s the sacrifice we have to make, just like Tori has to make one,” she continues. “Because I really do believe what’s best for her is placing this baby for adoption.”

“Ditto.” Feeling fairly certain that Sarah won’t be able to read his deception on his face, Matt closes the refrigerator door.

Matt watches his wife pause by the open cupboard, as her thoughts have clearly overtaken her.

“It’s so weird, because I’m watching my brother go through this entire thing where he finds out he has a grandson he didn’t know about,” Sarah says, “and he and Claire are so torn up about missing all this time with Peter — and then we’re over here encouraging our daughter to give up her baby.”

“Pretty different situations,” Matt says.

“I know. It just makes you think, you know?” She opens her arms and encircles them around Matt’s torso. “We are doing what’s right, aren’t we?”

Matt feels his secret burning hot inside his chest, so eager to leap up and into his throat, out his mouth, into the world. He fights the sensation, because he genuinely does believe the next thing he says:

“This is the best thing for Tori,” he tells her, “and that means it’s gonna be better for that baby, too.”

Sarah squeezes him. “You’re right.”

Matt swallows down his guilt as best he can, knowing that all he can do now is stay the course.

—–

Samantha is only back at her desk for a minute or two before she is paged to reception. The call takes her by surprise, since she rarely receives packages or visitors at work. Before she has even finished rising from her desk, however, a terrible thought occurs to her: that something has happened at the hospital, that her grandfather has taken a turn for the worse. She knows that someone would probably call rather than showing up here– but maybe her mother didn’t want to break the news over the phone. Her body tingles with terror as her pace toward the lobby becomes even brisker.

When she arrives there, however, she does not find her mother waiting, but rather Jaq Pearson. Samantha hadn’t even realized that she had been holding her breath, but now she releases it all in a big whoosh.

“Oh, it’s only you,” she says as she approaches Jaq after thanking the receptionist.

“Don’t get too excited,” Jaq says with a smirk. She wears torn jeans, her black leather jacket, and a black-and-white striped tee. Her short, dark hair, with its seemingly effortless swoop, looks impossibly cool.

“No, it’s good to see you,” Samantha tells her apologetically. “I didn’t mean– I got worried it might be news about my grandpa.”

“That’s actually kind of why I came here.” She sees Sam’s eyes flare again and hastens to add, “I don’t have news or anything. I was just making a delivery for KBAY to another floor in this building and I thought you might be in.”

“Oh. That makes sense. Thanks. Sorry, I’m a little on-edge.”

“I get it. Do you have a minute, or are you super-busy?”

“I actually have some downtime,” Samantha says. “I can show you around if you want.”

Jaq smiles. “That sounds great.”

Samantha leads her back through the office, stopping to show off her own cubicle, the in-house photo studio that is currently not in use, and a few other things. Finally she brings Jaq out to a large patio. It is still chilly out, but the sun has emerged, and a few other employees are chatting or enjoying a break on their cell phones outside.

“I come out here to unwind for a few minutes sometimes,” Samantha explains. “Or have my lunch or read. Just to get away from work, you know?”

“Totally get it,” Jaq says as they sit on two wooden chairs near a railing that overlooks King’s Bay, from downtown all the way out to the water, which glistens a brilliant blue beneath the sun.

“It’s such a nice day,” Samantha observes. “Nice to have a break from the rain.”

“No kidding. I didn’t even realize how much I missed the sun until it came back out.”

Samantha nods. “You’re done with work for the day?”

“Yeah. Been going since the crack of dawn– well, before that– but the good part is I’m finished early most days.” Jaq turns in her chair to face Samantha. “I did wanna see how you’re doing, and how your grandpa is, and all of that. Your mom doesn’t talk much about it at the station, but I heard that he’s still in the hospital.”

“He is. We don’t know if he’ll ever get out, to be honest.”

“Wow. I’m really sorry, Sam.”

“Thanks.” Samantha looks down at the ground and falls quiet for a few seconds. “That’s kind of why I’ve been so busy lately. Between work, and stopping by the hospital, and there’s some other family stuff going on — I haven’t made a lot of time to socialize.”

“That’s okay. Life happens,” Jaq says. “But I had fun that night we went out — I mean, before we had to go to the hospital, obviously — and it’s fun texting with you and stuff. If you want to get dinner or something…”

Samantha isn’t sure how to interpret that, and she feels her tongue twisting itself up, even as the glow in Jaq’s face makes it fairly obvious that she means as a date.

Or does she? Sam wonders nervously as she scrambles for a response.

“I’d like that,” she manages to say. That much, at least, is the truth, regardless of Jaq’s intent.

“Cool. And for the record, I did mean dinner like a date.”

A laugh, more of relief than amusement, tumbles out of Samantha’s mouth. “I’d like that.”

“Okay, good. Didn’t mean to put you on the spot, but y’know… sometimes you have to shoot your shot.”

“It’s good that you did,” Samantha says, as she realizes how genuinely excited she is to spend more time with this new friend and see if it could be something even more.

END OF EPISODE 966

Is Samantha now ready to move on from Tempest?
Will Matt be able to keep the secret of what he did?
Is there anyone who can change Jason’s mind now?
Talk about all this and more in the comments below!

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