Previously…
– Blood test results showed that Alex had been drugged the night before Peter’s custody hearing. Jason’s test results came back negative, though he believed it was because he’d waited too long to have blood drawn.
– After visiting Loretta in prison, Spencer confronted Elly about her role in hiring the P.I. and causing Jason to be late for the hearing. Elly denied any involvement with Loretta or the scheme, but her defensiveness made Spencer even more suspicious.
– Tori continued to blame Matt for the death of her unborn daughter and reunited with Zane.
Having finished teaching lessons for the morning, Jason Fisher stands at the side of the large rink inside Edge of Winter Arena, pulling the rubber guards over his skate blades. He watches the skaters of various levels and abilities zipping back and forth over the well-marked ice, but his gaze fixes upon one skater in particular. He observes with a strange tangle of emotions as Bree Halston executes a powerful flying camel spin and then exits it on one foot with confidence.
He hates that he is no longer her coach; after her summer session away from King’s Bay, she opted to train with other coaches for the competitive season. The two have hardly spoken ten words to one another since Bree’s return. He understands that the teenager has been through so much in the past few years, and he wants to respect her feelings — but he also hates knowing that he’s somehow been turned into the villain, or at least a villain, of her story simply because he wants to raise the boy he for so long believed was his biological son.
Exhaling in frustration, Jason walks past the skate rental counter and the garage that stores the Zamboni. He continues to watch the action on the ice until the loud sound of the door opening and closing — a noise that always reverberates through the vast space — pulls his attention to the entrance.
He can’t quite believe what he is seeing: Spencer Ragan, standing in his arena.
Jason sucks in an enraged breath and then marches around the end of the ice to confront his nephew.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” Jason demands.
Spencer turns, looking slightly amused at his uncle’s anger. “I’m picking up Bree. Natalie had to take Peter to the doctor.”
“What? Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. It’s a routine check-up,” Spencer says. “Don’t worry. Peter’s doing really well.”
“Great. I’m glad to hear that. Really.” Jason folds the arms of his winter coat in front of his body. “You could’ve waited in the car.”
“Am I really bothering you that much by being here?” Spencer waves to Bree out on the ice and then points to the orange lights on the scoreboard that display the time. “I didn’t come here looking for a fight.”
“Then you really should’ve waited in the car.”
“Look, Jason, I’m sorry about how things turned out,” Spencer says, squaring his body to face Jason. “Seriously. Natalie screwed us both over by lying about Peter’s paternity for so long. But I can’t go back in time and change any of that.”
“No, and I can’t go back in time and change the fact that someone drugged Alex and me to keep me from making it to court for that hearing.”
“Our attorneys said something about that. I don’t know what to tell you–”
“You could start with the truth,” Jason says. “Because one way or another, someone is going to pay for what happened to Alex and me.”
—–
“Drugged?” Paula Fisher gasps. She stands at the counter in her kitchen, with two mugs of coffee in hand. “Who would do a thing like that?”
From her seat at the table, Sarah Fisher Gray looks back at her mother. “I have a list of suspects as long as my forearm.”
With a troubled sigh, Paula brings the two cups of coffee to the table and sets one in front of Sarah.
“That’s something that happens in a spy movie, not in King’s Bay,” the older woman says as she takes a seat across from Sarah.
“Have you seen the stuff that goes down here?”
Paula clucks her tongue in disbelief. “It’s just… for someone to drug Jason and Alex is so extreme. They could have been seriously hurt — or killed!”
“I know,” Sarah says before blowing on her hot coffee. “I wish we’d gotten Jason in for the test earlier. It’s one thing to show that Alex was drugged, but if we could definitively prove that Jason had been, too…”
“Do you really think this could make a difference in the judge’s ruling?”
“It’s the only chance Jason has.”
Paula quietly sips her coffee.
“I wish this could all be over,” she says with despair. “I really thought it was.”
“Jason deserves another day in court if the ruling only happened because someone set him up,” Sarah counters.
“Yes. Of course.”
But Sarah knows her mother’s mannerisms well enough to recognize that there is a “but…” coming.
“Who do you think was behind this?” Paula asks. “In your professional opinion.”
Sarah bristles at the unspoken warning: Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgment, Sarah. And, even more annoyingly: Don’t give me news that I don’t want to hear.
“I don’t really have a strong idea,” she finally says. “It could have been Natalie, or Elly, or Spencer, or Loretta, or any combination of those people–”
“You really think Spencer would do something that evil?” Paula wags her head in disapproval; Sarah hates how the reaction seems to be about her floating this very logical possibility as it is about the possibility itself.
“What I’m saying is, I don’t know,” Sarah tells her. “Someone put drugs into Alex’s system so that he’d stay at Jason’s overnight and could be photographed leaving. I have no doubt that someone drugged Jason to keep him knocked out all night, too. And I think you need to accept the possibility that Spencer — as much as you’ve come to consider him family — could be the person behind that.”
—–
Jason claps his glove-covered hands together impatiently.
“Someone knows something,” he tells Spencer.
“And I don’t know what to tell you,” Spencer responds. “If you think you have such strong grounds for an appeal, let’s let the lawyers handle it.”
“Do you really think that’s fair?”
“What does that mean?”
Jason pauses as a younger skater and her mother pass by. He offers them a friendly wave and a smile, which immediately fades once they step through the front doors.
“One of your lawyers is the one who claims she hired the P.I.,” Jason says, “and I’m convinced that P.I. was part of setting up Alex and me.”
“Elly said she hired the P.I.,” Spencer replies. “There are a lot of leaps between that and her having anything to do with what you claim happened.”
“I don’t think it’s that big a leap.”
“Elly was not behind this. I can promise you that.”
Jason raises an eyebrow. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because–” Spencer trips over his next words before he gets them out. “Because I know her. She wouldn’t sink to that level.”
“But somebody did.”
“Maybe not. I don’t know — our lawyers said that Alex’s test came back positive, but not yours. Isn’t it possible that he took something the night before?”
“Alex didn’t give himself a date-rape drug.”
Spencer holds up both palms. “I don’t know what he and Trevor do behind closed doors. It’s none of my business. But that seems as much a possibility as whatever you’re talking about.”
“You’re as bad as your wife,” Jason says.
“Jason, look. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through all this. I really am. But if you keep going with this, you’re going to make life really, really confusing for him.”
“I didn’t even get a fair shot at a custody hearing!”
“The courts gave Natalie and me custody. If you don’t drop this, all you’re going to accomplish is making life a hell of a lot worse for everyone involved. I’m his father. He knows me as his dad now. So–”
But Spencer doesn’t have the chance to finish his statement, because Jason’s fist connects with his face, and Spencer stumbles backward and falls to the ground.
—–
Tori Gray balances the compostable cup carrier between her hip and the doorframe as she uses her key to unlock the apartment door. The building’s ever-unreliable lights flicker overheard as she uses a foot to push the door open and then enters triumphantly.
“Who wants coffee and bagels?” she asks.
Zane Tanaka swivels around in his desk chair, which is stationed in front of two large monitors, both of which are currently displaying dense lines of code.
“You’re amazing,” he says, his dimples creasing as he speaks.
“I thought some breakfast and caffeine would help you work.”
“They will. Thank you.” Zane rises and gives her a kiss on the cheek as she sets the bag and carrier on the faded kitchen countertop.
“This one’s yours,” Tori says, handing him one of the cups. “Splash of half-and-half, that’s it.”
Zane grins and kisses her again, this time on the lips.
“Like I said: amazing.” He carefully takes a first sip of the coffee, finding it hot but not unbearably so. “We really need to buy a new coffee maker.”
Tori grimaces as she picks up her own coffee. “Not exactly in the budget.”
“And these were?” Zane asks, lifting his cup for emphasis.
“These were a few bucks. A coffee maker is expensive.”
“Not if you add up how much you spend on these every day.”
With a groan, she rolls her eyes. “I need to buckle down and do more job-searching today.”
The bag rustles noisily as Zane opens it and pulls out a bagel.
“This freelance thing is so uneven,” he tells her. “The amount of working and reworking I’m doing for such a small amount of money is…” He opens his mouth and lurches forward to simulate vomiting.
“Okay, well, we need to figure something out. I’ve sent out so many resumés, and I never hear anything back.”
“I don’t think those online things work. They filter too many people out. I bet no one’s even seeing your stuff.”
Tori lets out a huff. “That’s a reassuring thought.”
“Bet you wish I hadn’t given your mom that hundred thousand back, huh?”
She stares back at him with widened eyes. “Zane.”
“Okay. Bad joke.” He gets out a plate and a bread knife and begins slicing the bagel. “We’ll find jobs. Maybe we need to cast a wider net. In the meantime, my freelance work is enough for us to scrape by.”
Tori looks around the grungy apartment. She has tried to put her stamp on it, to clean up and refresh things and even put art on the walls; it is less of a bachelor pad than it was when she met Zane, but it’s far from the sort of place she imagined herself living as an adult.
“Come here,” he says, setting down the knife and encircling his arms around her waist. “It’s not gonna be like this forever.”
She rests her head against his chest. “I just never pictured it being like this. I have no job, I don’t really have friends, I don’t have my family–”
“You have some of them: Spencer, Travis…”
“It’s not the same.”
“Are you thinking you want to give things with your mom and dad another shot?”
Tori thinks about that and stubbornly shakes her head. “Not after what my dad did, no. I don’t think anything could ever make up for the way he lied and manipulated us–”
“It’s okay,” Zane says, bringing a calming hand to the middle of her back.
“It’s not okay. It will never be okay.” She looks like him right in the eyes. “Our daughter is dead because of what my dad set in motion. And no matter how tough things get, I’m not going to forget that. Ever.”
“You have me, and I have you. Never forget that.”
“I know.” She kisses him and then buries her head in his chest again. “I know.”
—–
Paula takes in the plainness of Sarah’s statement; it is as if she has been smacked with a sack full of bricks, as dazed as it makes her feel.
“I hate the thought that Spencer would do something like that to his own uncle,” Paula says. “To anyone, really — but especially to family.”
“Spencer grew up with Loretta Ragan,” Sarah reminds her. “That takes all the rules for normal behavior off the table.”
Paula contemplates that for a long moment, then scrambles out of her chair.
“Where are you going?” Sarah asks, standing up herself.
“I have to go see Spencer. I have to get the truth out of him.”
“Mom. No.” Sarah’s words get Paula to pause. “Let the lawyers handle this.”
“I can’t take this anymore,” Paula says, desperation pulling at the corners of her mouth. “The holidays are coming up, and no one is getting along. Jason and Tim are at odds because of Peter. Spencer might have drugged Jason. Tori only comes anywhere near us so that she can see Billy…”
Sarah’s eyes fall at the reminder of her daughter’s absence.
“I really thought giving her space would help,” she says. “She was so determined to get back together with Zane and live with him. I thought she’d go there, stew for a while, and then start to become, well, herself again.”
“She’s grieving. She’s grieving, and she’s angry, and she’s stubborn just like her mother,” Paula says with pointed eye contact.
“That’s the part that scares me the most. I know how I would’ve handled something like this at her age. And I know Matt can’t even begin to forgive himself until Tori gives him the go-ahead. It’s like he’s a zombie these days.”
Paula offers a clipped nod. “He’s doing everything he can to keep his head above water.”
“I know, and I wish I could help him more. He goes to work, he does whatever he has to do with Billy, he helps out around the house — but it’s like he’s walking through a fog the entire time.” She sighs. “I feel the same way sometimes. And I just miss her. Even when we were fighting, she’s… she’s Tori.”
“Come here, dear.” Paula outstretches her arms, and her expression leaves Sarah no choice but to accept the hug.
“Now you know how your father and I felt about you all those years,” the older woman says. “No matter how difficult things got, or how much you resented us, there was never any question that we wanted you back here, under our roof, truly being a part of this family.”
Sarah takes that in; there were so many years when she felt abandoned by her own family, even if they were standing right beside her, because Molly seemed to be the favored one, or because they never let Sarah’s mistakes drift far from anyone’s consciousness.
“Things can’t keep going like this,” Sarah says. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to put this family back together.”
—–
Jason stands dazed, his hand still balled into a fist, over his nephew, who pulls himself to a sitting position.
“What is wrong with you?” a voice shouts, and Jason turns to see Bree running toward them. Her guard-covered skate blades clap against the floor as she moves deftly.
“I didn’t mean to–” Jason stops, looking down at his fist as if it were possessed. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“No, you weren’t.” Spencer touches his hand to his cheek. “You need to get a grip.”
Jason feels eyeballs turning their way and, when he risks a glance sideways, confirms that curious onlookers are crowding around them. His stomach sinks as the gravity of what he has done sinks in.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m frustrated about Peter.”
“That was more than frustrated,” Spencer says, still rubbing his face.
Bree turns toward Jason. Her face is tight, so much so that she looks to be on the verge of tears. Jason’s first instinct is to comfort the girl who for so long was like a daughter to him, but before he can even process that thought, she points her index finger at him.
“You are making everything so much worse!” she growls through her teeth. The sheer force of it renders Jason silent, and he watches Bree help Spencer to his feet.
“I didn’t mean it,” Jason manages to say, but Spencer and Bree are already moving toward the exit, and he can feel the other eyes firmly focused on himself.
The door opens, and Spencer turns back over his shoulder.
“You just did the stupidest thing you could’ve done,” he says, and then he leaves with Bree, the door slamming behind them. It echoes through the arena, leaving Jason to stew in the reality of what just happened.
END OF EPISODE 995
Will Spencer seek revenge on Jason?
Is Elly’s secret going to be revealed?
Can Sarah mend fences between Tori and Matt?
Talk about it all in the comments below!