PREVIOUSLY

Briggs: For what it's worth, I believe you. You're many things, but not that.

Todd: Not anymore, no. Never again. I've paid too high a price.

Briggs: I know.

Todd: Enough of this chit-chat, get back to work.

Briggs: Anything you say, Mr. Manning. (Smiles slightly to himself when his back is turned. Leaves.)

Todd: (Scanning the copy, on edge.) God. He really does sound like me. The description is damning enough, different MO... (Reads a little more.) That sonofabitch is brutal... Not even I'd do something like that. No, wait... (gulps.) I did... Uh-oh... That sonofabitch... I am not gonna get set up! (On his intercom:) Briggs! Get in here!

[Scene ends.]

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[Scene: Max's house, livingroom, first thing in the morning. They are dressed.]

Blair: So, ok, so you claim Tina didn't get you actually drunk, right?

Max: (A little wary:) Yeah...

Blair: And you claim she got nothing out of you of any consequence?

Max: Right. Is there something you think you've heard or something? What is this?

Blair: We have to cut them off at the knees.

Max: Not literally?

Blair: If we have to.

Max: Blair...

Blair: I am not losing my little girl, Max.

Max: To Todd? Are you kidding? With his record?

Blair: He has to look the worst of us.

Max: He already does.

Blair: Maybe not enough the worst yet.

Max: What? Have you actually thought this out? You have some sort of plan ready?

Blair: Not yet, that's what I need you for.

Max: Oh, no, Blair. This is your custody fight, remember? I've already lost mine.

Blair: Which won't count in our favour.

Max: They won't let them visit, I've tried.

Blair: Not even long enough to win this case?

Max: Not even for a weekend. Let's face it, Blair, I will never win Father Of The Year, here.

Blair: Neither will Todd.

Max: Frankly, he has the better chance of the two of us.

Blair: Max!

Max: Except for when he left town after the wedding he's been like a rock for Starr since Ireland, and you have to admit that if it weren't Todd you'd find his fatherly devotion to his daughter endearing.

Blair: But it is Todd.

Max: Yeah. What're you cooking up, Blair? You have that "I'm scheming" look on your face I know so well.

Blair: I'm thinking, I'm thinking, Max.

Max: Oh, boy... I mean, I'd like to see Todd go down for the count as much as the next guy, but Starr --

Blair: -- Is too young to know what she wants.

Max: Both of us know that's not really true.

Blair: It's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Max: But you don't even really believe it.

Blair: But I can make it believable that I do. Now, what I can do to Sam?

Max: Not much, really. Will's out of the picture, Jen never showed up, thankfully, and Lindsay's hardly around. I don't think you can trade on your former relationship, it's long gone. The way you broke up over Todd, well...

Blair: (Glares at him.)

Max: Well, really I don't think you have any leverage over Sam at this point.

Blair: Well, what about Nora?

Max: What about Nora?

Blair: She threw Todd's case --

Max: Because he was guilty, so? He was.

Blair: Yeah...

Max: But she's on your side. You really don't want to antagonize Nora.

Blair: No, but we can use his history against him.

Max: And you lied to him about his kids.

Blair: Sure, but it got me what I wanted.

Max: It was less fun than it seemed, actually, telling him about you having lied to him about the first pregnancy. Then he went and found out for himself you were lying about the date you got pregnant, only to lose that baby later.

Blair: Why are you taking his side in this?

Max: I'm a father. Plus, you were devastated by it. I don't think I've seen you in rougher shape, except with the accident later with Patrick's baby and the recovery process, but then I really didn't see you then... Ok, I'll bite. Back to Nora. He did serve his time.

Blair: Yeah, but has he repeat offended on that charge?

Max: We really don't know, do we?

Blair: Right. There's a rapist going around that even fits his description.

Max: Oh, Blair...

Blair: Oh, yes. This could be extremely damning.

Max: And it wouldn't matter if he was innocent, would it?

Blair: Why should it?

Max: True.

Blair: I'm going to enjoy this. I'll hold off a bit.

Max: During the hearings?

Blair: Let's just hope this guy doesn't get caught before then.

Max: You'd have sole custody for sure then, yeah.

Blair: Starr would get used to it.

Max: To be honest, I'm not sure she would. She really doesn't want anything to do with me, especially since Todd's been back. She talks about her father all the time, and you know how much she hates being seperate from him especially if the alternative is me. She won't sit at the dinner table with me there anymore, even.

Blair: She'll get used to it.

Max: We may have a serious fight with her on our hands about it, Blair. It's started already.

Blair: (Ignoring him.) Now, what can I do to his little chiquita?

Max: No windows.

Blair: That would be too obvious, since I've already done it. Gotta be something else...

Max: Remember her brother's a spook, and they do have those bodyguards of RJ's all over. They've got a staff assigned to watching Starr, too, don't forget.

Blair: How could I? Jeez, we can't go anywhere without one of them shadowing Starr!

Max: Todd hired them to protect his family.

Blair: Well, she doesn't need protecting. Not from outsiders.

Max: He feels she does. I bet he's just waiting to see if I'll hurt her or if she gets injured in my care.

Blair: That won't happen now that she's refusing to be alone with you. You didn't do anything to her, did you?

Max: What?! No way. I don't hurt kids.

Blair: You don't raise them, either. (Thinking.) The tape! We can play that tape! He'll go ballistic in front of the judge! Perfect!

Max: I still have a copy.

Blair: Bo doesn't have all of them?

Max: Nope.

Blair: Perfect. Oh, thank you, Max! This is our ace in the hole.

Max: I think we've just won custody.

[Scene ends.]

[Scene: Diner. Just after the breakfast rush next morning.]

Carlotta: Hi, Roseanne. You're not on until later, is everything ok?

Roseanne: Not really, no. Cris won't speak to me, Antonio hates me, Tea's up to more of her lies about my father, and Will's in New York. No, I'm not ok.

Carlotta: Can you tell me about it? You know you can talk to me.

Roseanne: Can I, really? You're Cris' mother, you've never liked me.

Carlotta: That's not true. I don't want you with Cris, that's true, but that's because he's got a well-established relationship with Jessica and he's made it clear he wants to be with her and not you.

Roseanne: But Cris is my soulmate.

Carlotta: Not to him, Roseanne. I realise believing in that probably sustained you through some terrible times, but it's simply not based in fact.

Roseanne: Yes it is. The heart knows only facts.

Carlotta: Of the heart. The heart can be tricked, Roseanne.

Roseanne: Jessica has tricked Cris' heart. He loves me.

Carlotta: As a lifelong friend, sure, but as nothing else.

Roseanne: That's not true.

Carlotta: It is, Roseanne. I wish you could see that for yourself, but you've had this delusion so long it must be hard to shake quickly.

Roseanne: Delusion? I'll tell you who's deluded! Tea is deluded, and she tried to get me to believe that my Mami --

Carlotta: Annarosa did what?

Roseanne: She would never be unfaithful to Papi. Tea's the real reason my mom's dead! She lied to my father about my mother and my mother killed herself because of a vindictive teenaged sister-in-law!

Carlotta: (Quietly:) Roseanne, Tea wasn't lying.

Roseanne: Oh, yes she was!

Carlotta: I was there for most of it. Tea didn't lie to you or to your father.

Roseanne: She did lie! She has to be lying! Mami would never do that!

Carlotta: We all knew it was a matter of time before something like that happened, but when your mother married your father, we thought Enrique was her salvation and that he would settle her down. He did for a while, and they had you and she seemed content and happy and we all breathed a sigh of relief. She had been a wild, troubled teenager, but when she met your father and they started dating she calmed down substantially. Then he had to work to support both of you and took on a second job and then got a full-time job that required he travel a lot and was away more and more.

Roseanne: So, Mami was always faithful to Papi.

Carlotta: For the first couple of years, yes. Then the neighbours could hear them arguing late at night more and more, your mother in tears, your father pleading and shouting and telling her he loved her.

Roseanne: See?

Carlotta: No, Roseanne, that's not the point. Yes, they were deeply in love. No, they didn't have a lot of money. So he took the job traveling because it was more money and he could save for your future. When he announced to your mother he had made that decision, she went crazy. She screamed at him for an hour and started throwing dishes at him. He finally tackled her, he told me, and pinned her to the floor and told her he was doing this to take care of her and you. He told me he left then, saying that he loved her.

Roseanne: My mother did not throw dishes.

Carlotta: Your mother threw a lot of things. She was scared he was leaving her and she was afraid he was lying, that it wasn't a job but another woman. He couldn't convince her otherwise.

Roseanne: She was faithful to that bastard. He was lying!

Carlotta: Do you know that your father never remarried?

Roseanne: Yeah.

Carlotta: Why not?

Roseanne: I don't know.

Carlotta: Because he was so devastated when your mother died. That's why he sent you away. He didn't want you to have to see him falling apart and he didn't have it in him to take care of you himself, so he sent you to your grandmother.

Roseanne: He sent me to that old witch because he didn't want any reminders of what a mistake he'd made marrying my mother!

Carlotta: No. He didn't want to have your neglect on his conscience because he was too deeply in grief to raise you.

Roseanne: So he sent me away and ran off.

Carlotta: He immersed himself in his work, and sent you money through your grandmother.

Roseanne: Which I never saw.

Carlotta: Your grandmother didn't work, did she?

Roseanne: No, she was looking after me.

Carlotta: Did you ever wonder how she could afford a roof over your heads?

Roseanne: Pension?

Carlotta: Your father sent her money to raise you with. You never asked her? You never wondered?

Roseanne: No. Why should I?

Carlotta: You never wondered where your father was?

Roseanne: Why should I? He sent me away.

Carlotta: You have an awful lot to learn, mija.

Roseanne: No, I don't. If Tea can land a Mr. Moneybags and have it all, the fancy house, the fancy clothes, then so can I. I don't need a college degree, Tea didn't use hers to get what she wanted --

Carlotta: You really don't have any idea, do you? You're so bound up in your bitterness and loss you've never grown out of your childish selfishness.

Roseanne: (Seething:) I'm not selfish, I'm pragmatic. I may be poor now, but once I snare Will, I'll never be poor again.

Carlotta: And what about all that talk of my son being your soulmate?

Roseanne: What use have I for love when it doesn't pay the bills? At least it's honest to go where the money is.

Carlotta: I guess I can see where all this low-self-esteem comes from.

Roseanne: It's not low-self-esteem. Tea sold herself to Todd for $5 million dollars. If she can do it and make out ok, then so can I.

Carlotta: Tea married Todd again, after a divorce, and she did it for love.

Roseanne: Todd's not capable of love, all he cares about is his trophy Latina wife and all his money.

Carlotta: You are more shallow than even I ever thought. I am astonished. I think of you as that little six year old girl I once knew, in pigtails and a pretty dress and new sneakers coming to me the day you got them and going on about how wonderful your Papi was for taking you on the subway to a special store to get them and having lunch with him, spending the day with your father just to get you some new sneakers.

Roseanne: That was a good day.

Carlotta: And I look at you now and this is not the same person at all. What happened to that happy little girl?

Roseanne: She died when my mom died.

Carlotta: I guess so. I miss her. She was such a sweet little girl, with such promise.

Roseanne: Promises were broken, and people lied to me.

Carlotta: So you became a liar and a stalker?

Roseanne: I don't stalk Cris.

Carlotta: You do. You came here not to be with Tea, but to follow Cris as soon as you were old enough to strike out on your own and had a little money. You've followed him around, attacked Jessica --

Roseanne: Do you defend Jessica because she's rich and white? She has nothing to offer him! Nothing!

Carlotta: And you do?

Roseanne: She's still a virgin, I'm not. I know how to treat Cris right --

Carlotta: You know how to seduce and manipulate, you do not know what love is.

Roseanne: Any better than my mother did? Go ahead, Carlotta, just say it!

Carlotta: Annarosa loved Enrique Delgado with all her heart, and he loved her with his whole heart. You didn't see him after her death, or rather you didn't want to see him. You blamed him and Tea. He was utterly heartbroken when Annarosa died.

Roseanne: He took off and left me as soon as he could.

Carlotta: He took off all right, right to Miguel where he beat the tar out of Miguel for Annarosa's death. The police were called, both of them ended up in jail that night, that's why you didn't see your father.

Roseanne: He wasn't around the next day, either. What's your excuse for him then?

Carlotta: He was still distraught and got drunk. It took Diego and some of the other men to keep him from throwing himself in after your mother. It ended up taking them a few days to stop him and make him sober up, and then it was time to bury your mother. He was there, Roseanne, in the back of the church.

Roseanne: He wasn't even in town by then!

Carlotta: You can ask the priest at the church, he's still there, or ask those who remain of our friends and neighbours then. He was there.

[Scene ends.]

[Scene: Todd's office at The Sun. Later in the morning.]

Blair: (Entering cautiously, seeing him behind his desk.) Todd?

Todd: Who let you in?

Blair: I work here, remember?

Todd: (Snarky:) Oh, right... (Coldly:) What do you want now? The answer is no whatever it is.

Blair: You don't know what I'm here for.

Todd: Well, it sure as hell isn't me.

Blair: Starr.

Todd: Figures. What about Starr? That slimey bastard hasn't hurt her?!

Blair: Who?

Todd: What? You got more than one in your bed? Oh, kinky, Blair.

Blair: What?!

Todd: You know, that guy you do the horizontal bop with?

Blair: Max?

Todd: Bright girl! Actually, that's kind of stupid. Now show me just how bright you really are and drop the custody grab.

Blair: Never, Todd.

Todd: You just lost your audience.

Blair: I came here to offer to compromise.

Todd: Never. Starr doesn't want it and neither do I. Starr stays with me.

Blair: You've always said that a child lucky enough to have two parents should be with both of them.

Todd: Not if they hate each other as much as we do. Starr wants to be with me, she's been telling everyone how much she hates Max and wants nothing to do with him and wants to live with Tea and me.

Blair: She doesn't hate Max. She doesn't know what she wants, she's too young to make that decision.

Todd: She's old enough to know what she wants and doesn't want and to decide who she wants to live with. I didn't tell her anything she didn't already know.

Blair: She doesn't hate Max, Todd.

Todd: She does hate Max. I think she sees right through him. I couldn't be prouder.

Blair: Well, I won't leave Max and you can't have Starr!

Todd: Can't? You don't tell me what I can and cannot do! Starr is not some piece of furniture! ...I'm too damn tired for this today. (His guard drops a little and he seems almost worn out.) All I want, all I want is my daughter. I want her happy and safe, and she is with me. (Seems to get a second wind, icily firm:) I will not lose my daughter. Not to Max, and not to you.

Blair: (Softening:) Look, we used to be best friends before we were married --

Todd: Well, we're not now.

Blair: (Almost seems to purr:) We could be again...

Todd: No, Blair. You're kidding, right? Not on your life. I can't trust you.

Blair: No surprise, you trust no one.

Todd: Least of all you. You divorced me saying you couldn't trust me. The only good thing to come out of our marriage is my daughter.

Blair: OUR daughter. Can't we compromise? Can't we be friends?

Todd: (Scoffs.)

Blair: For Starr's sake?

Todd: (Singing mockingly:) "Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends?"

Blair: Yeah?

Todd: Because we can't!

Blair: I'll fight you!

Todd: Good, I'll win! Now get out of my office!

Blair: (In a huff and practically redfaced with anger, wheels around and stomps out.)

[Scene ends.]

[Scene: PH2, Livingroom. Midday. Todd enters. He crosses to the stairs, looks around at the room, goes upstairs.]

[MBR doorway. Todd looks in and pauses, leaning against the door frame. Tea is asleep in the bed under the covers and he stands to watch her from the doorway. After a little while he yawns, and after a pause he crosses into the room and takes his shoes off. He carefully lays himself out next to Tea on top of the covers, and gathers her close against himself, burying his face in her hair with a look of emotional longing and relief, as if he's missed her deeply. She snuggles sleepily against him, he closes his eyes. Scene ends.]

TO BE CONTINUED