Previously…
– Jason and Alex both went for blood tests after suspecting someone had drugged them the night before the custody hearing. While Jason’s came back negative, Alex tested positive for Rohypnol.
– Sabrina and Jason’s pseudo-date to the opening of The Wild Lady ended awkwardly when Jason overthought whether to kiss Sabrina goodnight and wound up not doing so.
– Travis and Rosie reunited, despite her having witnessed a spontaneous kiss between Travis and his ex, Elly.

Alex Marshall stands in the kitchen of his bungalow home, gaze fixed upon the timer on the oven’s display. The digital green minutes tick away with excruciating slowness. He taps his sock-covered foot on the black-and-white checked flooring as he waits for dinner to be ready, though he is well aware that dinner is not what he is actually waiting for. As appetizing as the Barefoot Contessa’s new recipe for Chicken Marbella looks, and as delicious as he suspects the Cabernet Sauvignon that he picked up will be with it, he knows what is really at stake this evening. 

Unable to bear the waiting, he gives Chase his bath early and, once the boy is clad in cozy footie pajamas, puts on Paw Patrol on the flatscreen TV in their living room. By the time Alex returns to the kitchen, the number on the oven’s display has gone down significantly — but it is still not enough to quell his anxiety.

Nothing is, until he hears a key turning the lock on the front door. And, as soon as that happens, a new wave of nerves kicks in.

“Hey,” Alex calls out as he emerges from the kitchen.

His husband looks up from removing his brown loafers — from some designer or another that Alex cannot ever quite keep straight — and regards Alex with the same icy indecision he has been offering up since the morning of Peter’s custody hearing.

“Hey,” Trevor says, his coolness unmistakable. Alex has been coping with it, not wanting to do anything to make things worse between them, even though he knows deep in his heart that he did nothing wrong that night; he simply fears setting Trevor off even further, and they seem to have reached some strange, unspoken pact requiring both of them to act more like colleagues than spouses.

Alex hopes desperately that tonight will change that.

“Dinner’s almost ready,” he says, probably with a little too much enthusiasm.

Trevor, in the midst of hanging his coat, looks over. “Oh. Thanks. Where’s Chase?”

Chase. The common language that has kept them going even while they haven’t been capable of speaking five words to one another that don’t devolve into an argument.

“In there.” Alex points to the living room entrance, mere feet away, with the sounds of the TV audible from where they stand. “I already gave him his bath.”

“Really?” Trevor’s expression is inscrutable for a long moment but finally lands on something pleasant. “Thanks for taking care of that.”

“I wanted him all set for the night.” Now Alex sucks in a deep breath. “I was hoping we could talk.”

Trevor, who is taking his wallet from his pocket, stops mid-movement. But his silent stare seems to drag on forever.

“I’m not in the mood to fight,” he says at last. “Work was rough today.”

“I’m sorry. About work. And… everything else.” Alex feels the words spilling out of himself too fast, too desperate, and pauses a few seconds. “But I got some news today, and I think you’ll want to hear it.”

Slowly, Trevor lifts one eyebrow. “What kind of news?”

“I got back my blood test results from the night I– the night I was at Jason’s,” he says, tripping over the part of the story where he knows he showed a true lapse of judgment. “I tested positive for Rohypnol. Whatever happened that night… someone drugged me. That’s why I didn’t come home.”

Jason Fisher flutters around the second-floor office inside Edge of Winter Arena, stashing files and schedules in their proper places, tossing other sheets of paper in the garbage, and occasionally stuffing an item into his laptop bag.

“Almost done?” Tempest Banks asks from behind her own desk.

He stops at the tone of her voice — a tone that manages to say, How much longer are you going to be driving me crazy? 

“I just want to make sure things are in order before I go,” Jason says.

“There’s nothing left to get in order, the way you’ve been going at it for an hour now.” Tempest pushes out her chair and stands. “At least let me help.”

He exhales heavily and lets his shoulders drop. One more piece of paper remains clutched in his hand. “Sorry. I’m a little keyed-up from earlier.”

“I get it. Totally.” She comes out from behind the desk and takes the paper from his hand. “I’m gonna file this for you, and then you’re gonna get outta here.”

Jason watches quietly as she takes the sheet and finds the proper place for it in the filing cabinet.

“I guess I’m just trying to keep busy,” he says. “We have actual proof that someone drugged Alex that night, but it’s not like I can walk into the judge’s chambers and just explain that, so now I have to wait around for my lawyers to do something…”

She turns back to him, her face softening with sympathy. “I know. If I were you, I’d be banging on the door of that courthouse ’til they listened to me. But I guess that’s not how you’re supposed to do this stuff.”

Jason cracks a grin.

“You’ve gotta let the lawyers do their thing,” Tempest continues. “Go home and see your kid.”

“She’s with Helen and Don tonight.”

“Then go see a movie. Hang out with a friend.”

“Alex is busy explaining things to Trevor tonight,” Jason says.

“Then go downstairs and see Sabrina. I saw her working down there before. Get her and– I don’t know, go for a walk, get a drink.”

Jason hesitates, chewing on his lower lip.

“What?” Tempest prompts him.

“I’m not sure,” Jason says. “She’s been… I think she’s upset with me. Every time I pop into Thaw, she’s too busy to chat, and her texts are all one-word answers.”

“Huh.”

“It’s weird. We had a lot of fun that night at The Wild Lady, and then everything went to hell the next morning, and it’s like we barely know each other. I know that she knows what happened at the hearing, so I don’t know if she believes…” He trails off, not needing to explain to his coworker how the custody case played out.

“Then she’s a damn fool,” Tempest says.

“She’s not. It’s confusing, and…” Again his words fade off into nothingness. “Anyway, you’re right. I’m going to see what Travis is up to. I could use the company.”

“Good. Do that.” Tempest closes the drawer of the filing cabinet. “And the lawyers are gonna do their thing. I know these are the most annoying words in the English language, but give it a little time.”

He offers her a grateful smile. “Thanks, Tempest.”

“All good. Now get outta here,” she says, giving him a little push on the shoulder.

—–

Trevor takes in Alex’s information like a printer receiving data. It arrives, and he has to process it for several seconds before emitting any kind of response.

“Are you serious?” he finally asks.

“Yes. There were date-rape drugs in my system. Jason got tested, too, but he went hours after me, and they think he just missed the window for a positive result.”

“Wow. And obviously, Jason didn’t…”

“Drug me? No.” Alex tries hard not to sound appalled by the thought; he knows that Trevor is simply working through the logic. “Someone knocked us out, pumped drugs into us, and set it up so they could get photos of my car parked outside and of both of us leaving in the morning.”

Trevor lifts a hand to his brow. “That’s… insane. Who would do that?”

“I don’t know. Spencer and Natalie? That P.I. who Elly hired? Someone wanted Jason to lose the custody suit badly enough to do this.”

“And why you?” Trevor questions. “Everyone knows Jason is straight.” 

“I’ve been thinking about that all day,” Alex says. “Or since it happened, really. I guess because it’s more salacious? And they had photos of Jason and me hugging at Pride, and together a bunch of other times — there was clearly a plan here.”

“Alex, this is crazy.”

“I’m well aware. But I have the test results. You can look at them all you want. Someone drugged me.” Alex moves closer to his husband now. “I know how it looks that I left the house late at night to go to Jason’s, but I had every intention of being back home within a few hours.”

Trevor’s lips pull into a tight line.

“I hate how things have been between us,” Alex says. “I completely understand why you’ve been upset… but can we please try and get back on track now?”

The bells on the handle jingle as Tempest pulls open the door to Thaw Coffee & Tea. Normally she enters the cafe from the side adjoining Edge of Winter Arena, but this evening, she dropped her belongings in the car before deciding to pick up a cup of tea and a pastry for later. She knows that she has leftovers in the fridge to eat for dinner, but day-old chicken tenders and fries aren’t sounding that appetizing right now, so she figures she might as well treat herself a bit. 

Besides, there is something else that she feels compelled to do.

When she walks in, she finds the place as brightly illuminated as always, though it seems different — harsher, maybe — because it is so dark outside. A few customers are scattered throughout, working on their laptops or playing on their phones. As she approaches the counter, Tempest sees Sabrina Gage crouched down, straightening out the display case.

“Got anything still fresh in there?” she asks.

Sabrina looks up, startled at first, but she gives a friendly smile once she recognizes Tempest.

“The cookies are from this afternoon,” Sabrina says. “Definitely get a cookie…” She lowers her voice and covers one side of her mouth with her hand. “Not a scone. They’re beyond stale.” 

With a grin, Tempest contemplates the case’s offerings for a moment.

“Gimme a chocolate chip cookie and a peppermint tea,” she says, reaching into her pocket for her debit card.

Sabrina quickly bustles around, putting the cookie in a bag and filling a cup with hot water. She slides both of them over the counter. Seeing the total on the register’s display, Tempest inserts her card into the reader.

“How you been?” she asks. “Haven’t seen you upstairs at all lately.”

Sabrina’s brown eyes flare wide, just like an animal caught in the sudden blinding beam of a vehicle’s headlights. She takes a breath and then exhales slowly as she passes Tempest a wrapped teabag.

“I’m fine,” she finally says. “Pretty good. Busy.”

Tempest eyes her suspiciously as she yanks her debit card from the reader. “You sure?”

“Yeah.” But Sabrina’s gaze drops down to the countertop. “Why?”

“Mmm…” Tempest screws her lips up into a tight ring. “I was just noticing how we were seeing a lot of you up in that office, and then we weren’t.”

“I can’t always get out of here. It gets busy.” Sabrina’s words radiate a nervous energy, one that only causes Tempest to eye her more closely.

“Something happen with you and Jason?”

“What? No.”

“‘Cause he was always making excuses to come down here, too,” Tempest says. “That boy was drinking way too much coffee. And then it just kinda… stopped.”

Sabrina stares at her over the register nervously.

“You sure nothing happened?” Tempest asks.

“No. What would’ve happened?”

“I don’t know exactly, but it lines up with whatever went down at that custody case.”

“I’m sorry that Jason lost the case,” Sabrina says. “But it isn’t really my business.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Tempest says. “You’re his friend, and now he never comes down here anymore. And I think I know why.”

Sabrina pushes an awkward, too-polite grin across her face. “Tempest, I appreciate your concern, but–”

“You believe what they were saying about Jason, don’t you?”

The hesitation from the other side of the counter is all the answer Tempest needs.

“That’s the thing you need to hear,” Tempest continues. “Because Jason probably won’t tell you himself. But someone drugged him and Alex that night. Someone set them up.”

“Damn. That’s… it’s psychotic,” Travis Fisher says as he sets down his beer roughly atop the wooden bar of 322 Bar & Grill.

“That’s one way of describing it,” Jason responds. He sits on a barstool beside his nephew, nursing a beer of his own. The eatery is abuzz with the movement and conversation of the dinner hour, and the bright headlights of downtown traffic are visible through the restaurant’s front windows.

“You know, Spencer and I had gotten to– well, not exactly a truce, but this kind of unspoken agreement to coexist,” Travis says. “But this is, like, vintage Spencer.”

“Yep. And I thought he genuinely liked Alex, too. They’ve worked together at Vision for so long.”

“I guess he didn’t care who became collateral damage when it came to keeping custody of Peter.”

“Yeah.” Jason sighs loudly. “Thanks for meeting up. I didn’t want to pull you away from Rosie. It sounds like you guys have been making up for lost time.”

A grin instantly stretches over Travis’s face. “We are. It’s awesome. But she’s working tonight anyway — and I could tell you needed someone to chat with.”

Jason nods along as he sips his beer. “I did. So thank you. It’s weird — my first instinct when something like this happens is to call your dad, but…”

“He’s still there for you.”

“But he’s also Peter’s grandfather, and Spencer’s dad, and I feel like it’s impossible to have a conversation about this without him jumping to Spencer’s defense. Right now, that’s the last thing I want to listen to.”

“I know. But you guys are brothers.”

“I guess we’ll see how much he defends Spencer now.” Jason glances up at the basketball game on the TV above the bar before continuing. “What about Elly?”

Travis turns sharply toward his uncle. “What about her?”

“Have you spent much time with her since she got back? She claims that she’s the one who hired that P.I., and if the P.I. was in on setting us up…”

“She’s definitely found her voice, or whatever,” Travis says, “but I can’t imagine her doing something that malicious. She’s a pretty shrewd lawyer — but she isn’t a bad person.”

“Hmm.” Jason traces a circle on the frosty beer glass as he thinks. “I wouldn’t exactly put it past Natalie, either.”

“No way. So really, it could’ve been any of them. Or all of them.”

“Yeah, but I guess what really matters is proving that someone drugged Alex and me to get those photos. Sarah’s already working with my lawyers on it. If they can do that, then I have a real shot of winning custody of Peter.”

—–

Alex’s entire body clenches as he awaits Trevor’s response.

“I know how it looked,” Alex adds, “but I swear, I went over there because I thought Jason was spiraling. I thought I’d be home before midnight, and you and Chase would still be asleep. I never thought…” He still can’t fathom how this actually happened to him. No matter how many times he scans his memory, nothing between pulling up to Jason’s house and waking up the next morning ever comes to him.

“I can’t believe someone drugged you,” Trevor says, and then he throws his arms around Alex. “I’m sorry for not believing you right away.”

Alex is quiet, relishing the feel of his husband’s arms wrapped tightly around him after all this time. He knew how much he missed this closeness, and yet he couldn’t have predicted just how good this would feel.

“I understand why,” Alex says at last, his face pressed into Trevor’s shoulder.

“It’s something I’ve always been a little insecure about,” Trevor says. “You and Jason — you’re so close, and I know that you– you were into him once upon a time.”

“I was closeted, and confused, and he was a good-looking guy who wanted to be my friend. I stupidly made a move on him once. But he shut it down, and that was that. He’s never been anything but a friend since.”

Trevor sighs. “You moved into his house to help him raise his daughter.”

“After his wife was murdered,” Alex says, pulling back to look his husband in the eyes. “Jason needed me then. I would have done that for any close friend.”

Slowly Trevor begins to nod. “I know. Because that’s who you are. I guess this whole thing shook loose some insecurity that I hadn’t totally dealt with.”

“Well, I want you to put it out of your head forever now. Because I am with you. Jason is my best friend, but you are my husband. The man I love. And my partner for life.” 

“Daddy!” Chase calls out, seconds before appearing in the entryway with them.

“Hi there,” Trevor says, smiling broadly as he scoops up the boy. “You got your bath already?”

“Mm-hmm,” Chase answers, bobbing his head enthusiastically.

“Then I have dibs on your bedtime story,” Trevor tells him. “Can you go pick out a book?”

“Okay!” The little boy darts back out of the room.

Trevor takes hold of Alex’s hand. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”

“I’m sorry I gave you reason not to.”

They kiss, their lips meeting for the first time in what feels like an eternity.

“I’m going to go read him his story,” Trevor says. “But we’re going to figure out who did this to you.”

Alex lets out a heavy breath through his nostrils. As much as he wanted the results to set things straight, he also doesn’t want to believe that someone could have done this to him.

“We’ll figure it out,” he says softly, and their fingers remain threaded together for several more seconds until Trevor pulls himself from the room.

“I’ll be back in a little bit,” Trevor says. Alex watches him go, and only now does he feel like he can truly exhale, hopeful for the first time since that terrible morning.

—-

Sabrina’s big, brown eyes flare even wider as she takes in what Tempest has told her.

“What? How do you know?”

“I probably shouldn’t be telling you this,” Tempest says, pausing for only a second more. “But Jason and Alex both went to get blood tests the day of that court case. Alex went a little while before Jason, and his came back positive for that date-rape drug. He just got the results.”

Sabrina’s face twists with concern. “Who would do that?”

“I’ve got some ideas. But the point is, nothing happened between the two of them that night. I never thought it did, but…”

“I didn’t know what to believe,” Sabrina says, before hastily adding, “and it’s really none of my business.”

“If it’s making you keep your distance from a guy you used to hang around all the time… then you’re making it your business.”

Sabrina frowns. “That isn’t what’s happening.”

“Then what is it, Sabrina?”

Another moment of hesitation passes, and then Sabrina shakes her head.

“It’s nothing,” she says in a rush. “I have to finish cleaning up. Thanks for telling me about the test. I hope Jason and Alex are okay.”

Before Tempest can say anything further, Sabrina disappears into the back of the café. Tempest lingers by the counter.

“What is really going on with you, lady?” she mutters before picking up her tea and cookie to head home.

END OF EPISODE 994

Did Sabrina believe the accusations about Jason and Alex?
Can Tempest help Jason reconnect with Sabrina?
Will Alex and Trevor be able to move forward now?
Talk about all this and more in the comments below!

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