AFTERMATH - PART FIFTY-FOUR
PREVIOUSLY
Tina: You two planned this out, didn't you?
Sarah: No...
Tina: You're a terrible liar.
CJ: Well?
Tina: What makes you think he'll even be home?
Sarah: I don't know, but let's not call ahead. If he's there it'll be a surprise.
Tina: If he's not there?
CJ: We can see Nigel.
Tina: I see. If I didn't know any better I'd be sure you really wanted to see Nigel. (The children just grin at her.)
[Scene ends.]
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[Scene: Outside Alexandria ("Bukefaire"), same evening. CJ rings the bell, and eventually Nigel comes to answer it.]
Nigel: Er, hello?
Tina: Hi, Nigel. Do you remember me?
Nigel: I'm afraid not, Miss. Who are these lovely children? Should I know them, also?
CJ: Actually, yes. I'm Clint James Buchanan, this is my little sister --
Nigel: Sarah, is it?
Sarah: Yes, sir.
Nigel: Oh, yes, I do recall you although you were both rather less mature when last you visited.
Tina: May we come in, Nigel?
CJ: We'd like to see our great-grandpa if he's home.
Nigel: (Showing them in:) Was he expecting you tonight?
Tina: No, the children insisted on coming on the spur of the moment.
Sarah: Is he here, Nigel?
Nigel: Yes, although he's eating dinner at the moment.
CJ: He won't mind us being here, then.
Nigel: You don't know him very well, Master Roberts.
CJ: You remembered!
Nigel: Yes, of course.
CJ: (A little sheepishly:) Um, sorry.
Nigel: Quite all right. Shall I announce your presence, Madam?
Tina: Yes, announce the children. I'm not sure he's going to want to see me.
Nigel: How else to explain the children arriving unnacompanied?
Tina: Good point. Carry on, Nigel. You may announce me to him also.
Nigel: Thank you, Madam. Excuse me. (Takes off to the diningroom.)
[Moments later:]
Asa: (Emerging:) Well, well, well. Let me look at you two...
CJ: Nigel said you were eating your dinner.
Sarah: Sorry, gran'pa.
Asa: C'mere, you two, give the old man a hug.
CJ: (Looks at Sarah and then at Tina, as Sarah looks at him and then at Tina.) Mom?
Tina: It's fine.
Asa: (Hugs the kids.) I'm ignoring the fact that you brought that snake of a mother with you, son.
CJ: In the first place, I'm not your son, I'm Cord's. In the second place if you can't speak civilly to my mother we're leaving.
Asa: Well... You sure got some spunk for a boy. Shows you're a Buchanan after all, despite her.
Sarah: Gran'pa...
CJ: We're serious. We knew you wouldn't be able to be civil to our Mom, so we kept away from you most of the summer. This is your own fault, gran'pa. You could've had most of this summer with us running in and out of your house, but instead we've been with Aunt Viki and Uncle Todd when we weren't with Dukey, Starr, River, and our mother.
Asa: What would you have to do with that Devil's Spawn's Spawnling, boy?
CJ: (Testily:) Who?
Asa: That Manning kid.
Sarah: (Bristling:) "That Manning kid" happens to be my cousin and I'm not going to listen to you call her names or call my uncle names, and not in front of my Mom.
Asa: Since when? I thought you hated that rabid wolf psycho brother of yours.
Tina: (Snarkily:) Oh, look kids, he's speaking to me. (Tight grin looking at Asa.)
CJ: Mom doesn't hate Uncle Todd, but you've made no secret how much you hate them both. My sister and I weren't willing to put up with that at visits with you, but we decided to take the chance and be sure to see you now. Maybe it was a mistake after all.
Asa: You're not going anywhere, boy.
CJ: (Hissing:) I come and go as I please, Asa. If you still won't accept my mom and my uncle as MY family and as Sarah's family, then it also means you refuse to accept Sarah and me. If that's so, then I'd just as soon we not see you at all.
Asa: (Shocked, but begins to seethe:) You're a Buchanan --
CJ: (Quietly proud, firmly:) I am also a Lord.
Asa: You are a Buchanan, and while I like your spunk, you have no right to --
CJ: Speak to you like a Buchanan? Or is it that as a Lord, I have no right to speak to you like this? Which is it?
Sarah: CJ...
CJ: No, sis. I want to know here and now what the limits to this are so you and I can go on with the rest of our lives knowing which family is really ours.
Tina: (Helplessly:) I had no idea, Asa...
Asa: I'll bet you put him up to this! You had no idea, my ass, you little tramp!
Sarah: (Yelling:) How dare you speak to my mother like that, Asa! You owe my mom an apology right now!
Asa: They're your kids, all right. They have no respect for their elders.
Tina: They have plenty of respect for those who treat them with respect.
CJ: Treating me with respect includes not insulting me and my family because you don't like my mom, my uncle, or my aunt very much. If you want my respect, gran'pa, you'll have to earn it. It doesn't come from me like magic. I don't give it away.
Asa: Well, a Buchanan streak, after all...
CJ: Get off your high horse, Asa! Gran'pa just because you're my great- gran'pa doesn't mean you get to boss me around. I'm either a Buchanan or a Lord, but because of you I have to choose which it is and can't be both. I am both, except to you, and I really resent having to choose.
Asa: How old are you, boy?
CJ: 15.
Asa: You've grown up pretty fast, haven't you?
Tina: Where are you going with this?
Asa: Did you leave them alone a lot?
Sarah: We have not been neglected, if that's where you're heading.
Asa: How'd you get to be such a smart little filly?
Sarah: I am not a horse. Do not treat me as one.
Asa: I guess you two fancy yourselves as forces to be reckoned-with.
CJ: We already are.
Asa: We'll see about that.
Tina: Kids, I think you've done enough damage for one night.
CJ: Yeah, maybe we should go home now. I think I've made my point.
Sarah: I hope so. Can we just go, CJ?
CJ: Yeah, sis. Let's go home.
Asa: Home? This is your home.
Nigel: Sir? Is there anything amiss?
CJ: Not now, Nigel.
Sarah: We were just going home.
Nigel: I see. Will you be walking or shall I have our driver escort you to Mrs. Carpenter's home?
Asa: Have the driver come around and take them home. I think the kids are tired.
CJ: I've never been more awake, gran'pa.
Nigel: Very well, sir. I shall go get our driver. Just a moment, children. (Exits.)
Tina: (Calls after him:) Thank you, Nigel.
Asa: Why are you thanking him? You're walking.
CJ: (Humourless voice:) Very funny, Asa...
[Scene ends.]
[Scene: A little later that same evening. Todd gives the bodyguards the slip by dressing casually and tucking his long hair up into a baseball cap. He goes to the docks to think and try to have some privacy. Muhammed goes looking for him there, lucky guess, but doesn't recognize Todd from behind as he leans on the railing and looks out at the water in the evening light.]
Muhammed: (Speaking into his walky-talky quietly to Joshua on another part of the docks:) I don't know, Joshua. I don't have a clue where Manning is. Mr. Gannon isn't going to like this, Mrs. Manning will have my hide. Over.
Joshua: (Voice on walky-talky:) Keep looking, he loves the docks. He's got to be around here someplace. Darius says he's not at the office, Marshall says he's not at his sister's. We know he's not home. Over.
Muhammed: (Into walky-talky again:) He can't be nowhere. I do see a guy who could be him standing by the -- yep, just saw the scar. Found him. He looks ok, not injured or anything. [Camera pans to Todd.] It looks like he wanted to get away to think alone. Over.
Joshua: (Voice in walky-talky.) Well, good. Stay with him. Over.
[Muhammed approaches Todd and stays with him but doesn't disturb him. Cut to: Joshua breaks away to stop a guy he's been watching who looks like Todd only taller and thinner and in shorts and a loose t-shirt who has been following a woman and is now about to attack her. Joshua takes note of the guy's description, looking him up and down, and then stops him by simply appearing in his line of sight.]
Joshua: (On walky-talky:) Muhammed? Over.
Muhammed: (On walky-talky:) Yeah, Josh? Over.
Joshua: Manning still with you? Over.
Muhammed: He's standing right next to me now. Over. (Todd is glowering and fidgeting. He looks away. There is a crackly pause.)
Joshua: Ok. I've just stopped someone who almost looks like Mr. Manning from attacking a woman.
Todd: (Snaps his head to look right at Muhammed in alarm, eyes wide.)
Muhammed: (Looking right at Todd, who is very still and listening:) Well, he's right here, dressed in long navy uniform chinos, a navy baseball cap with his hair tucked into it, and a white t-shirt tucked in, with a casual light-weight cotton twill navy uniform jacket zipped up over it, goatee and 'stache. He looks very working-class and non-descript. Over.
Joshua: That's not at all the description of this guy. Jogging shorts, hair down, clean-shaven, a grubby, dirty t-shirt. I have to escort the woman home. Over.
Muhammed: We're leaving, too. Note the time. Over.
Joshua: Noted. Keep in touch. Over.
Muhammed: Roger. Over.
[Cut to: the other end of the docks.]
Joshua: Let's go, which way?
Woman: (Indicating rear stage left.) Here.
Joshua: That's the direction the guy went.
Woman: It's the way home for me.
Joshua: I advise you to call the LPD as soon as you get home, or I can escort you there if it you'd prefer. I think it would be good for you to file a report.
Woman: He didn't do anything.
Joshua: Because I happened by. You don't want this to happen to someone else because you didn't say anything?
Woman: No. It could just as easily be that someone else didn't file and I was next.
Joshua: Yes. (They begin walking toward rear stage left.)
[Scene ends.]
[Scene: The Sun offices, maybe a half hour later. Todd hasn't changed clothes, but he's taken the hat off and left his hair down. Later, he rises from his desk as the sun rises and he leaves, Darius following on foot. They pass a newspaper stand.]
New Rapist In Town
Publisher Asserts Innocence
Carlotta: Eli?
Eli: (Off camera, upstairs:) Yeah, Mami?
Carlotta: Tea's here to see you, before you run off to that summer course.
Eli: Gimme a minute, I'm packing.
Carlotta: He's been doing pretty well. He's turned into a very disciplined
young man, very punctual usually.
Tea: I'd like one of those.
Eli: Hi, Tea. What's up?
Tea: Just a couple of quick legal things.
Eli: I'm innocent, whatever it is. I've been very good this year.
Tea: Oh, these are not about you. They're about the custody case.
Eli: Todd's kid?
Tea: Yes. I was wondering if you'd be ok about speaking up on Todd's
behalf as regards his treatment of children.
Eli: In court?
Tea: During the hearings, yes. In the courtroom. Is that a problem?
Eli: As long as I'm not in the dock for something, sure. He helped me
out about who would take care of me.
Tea: I want you to tell the truth, no matter what that means, ok?
Eli: Like how badly we've always gotten along?
Tea: Yes.
Eli: I've never really gotten why helps me out.
Tea: You lost your mother.
Eli: So?
Tea: Todd has a big heart when it comes to kids, it's a bit of a paradox
to those who don't know him.
Eli: But why me?
Tea: You had no one else in a position to help, so he stepped in.
Eli: Why didn't he just adopt me?
Tea: He has a child of his own already. I think what struck him most
was that you were all alone when your mother died, and he had been just
as alone when his own mother died.
Eli: He has a strange way of taking care of kids, then.
Tea: He needs his distance from people, it's complicated. If we call you
as a character witness just tell the truth, don't candy-coat anything.
Eli: Are you his lawyer, too?
Tea: Sam Rappaport (digs out Sam's card), here's Sam's card, he's the
one in charge this time since I'm married to Todd. I'll tell Sam we
spoke and to expect a call from you later today. Is that ok with you?
Eli: (Reading the card.) Sure. (Looks at her.) Yeah. I have a paper
due so it might be late, after the library.
Tea: Fine. I have to go to work, take care of yourself, Eli.
Eli: I always do. Bye, Tea.
Tea: Bye, Eli, Carlotta. (Leaves.)
Carlotta: Bye, Tea! (Turns to Eli.) Well?
Eli: Mmm? Oh, thinking.
Carlotta: You should eat before you go. Take your medicine?
Eli: Yeah, as soon as I've eaten.
Carlotta: (Bringing a plate of food to him at the table.) Sit. Eat.
Eli: Run.
Carlotta: In that order.
Eli: (Starts eating.)
[Scene ends.]
[Scene: Nora's office, mid-morning same day.]
Bo: (Enters, sticks head in door.) Hey, Red.
Nora: Hi, Bo. What's up?
Bo: Can we talk? I mean, aside from about the custody stuff.
Nora: Oh! Yeah I did call you. Ok, what?
Bo: (Crosses to a chair in front of her desk.) May I?
Nora: Of course.
Bo: You know I've been thinking a lot about all this.
Nora: I know.
Bo: Well, I think I want us to move back in together when this is over.
Nora: What if I somehow don't get custody? Then what? Because if this
is just about Matthew, I don't want it.
Bo: No, it's not just about our son. There's much more at stake here.
Nora: You have to be sure of that. I have to be sure of that.
Bo: I'm pretty sure about it.
Nora: I'm not.
Bo: What do you mean you're not?
Nora: If I won custody, I'd want time alone for Matthew and I to rebuild
our own life. You say you're thinking about all this and trying to decide,
and even though I'm adamant and certain about having split up with Sam, I
just don't want to rush.
Bo: (Looks at her a moment, thinking.) You don't still love me?
Nora: That's the problem. I do.
Bo: So, what's the holdup?
Nora: I want to be sure that this is what we want so later we don't split
Matthew's family up again and he goes through what his sister did when he's
old enough to know what's happening.
Bo: Oh...
Nora: Yeah, "oh....".
Bo: I want to be with Matthew, I wasn't with Drew.
Nora: I know you do, and I don't blame you for wanting to be here for our
son. I just want us both to be sure that it isn't just for Matthew, but
for us, too. I want to be sure that we're doing the right thing if we do
get back together and that we'll stay together. I want to be sure for all
of us that there really is an "US".
Bo: I want that, too.
Nora: So don't try to rush things. It means Hank and Rachel, too.
Bo: (Sighs heavily.) I want to be with you and our son once this is over.
Nora: Let's just see what happens. Now I'm the one saying this.
Bo: Yeah, that's my line. (Grins at her.)
Nora: Now I'm the one who's not so sure about us.
Bo: Us? I want there to still be an us. That's our house. That
nursery was always meant for our baby to use, and now we have one
and he should use his room.
Nora: He does.
Bo: But not with his Daddy there to tuck him in at night. I was
estranged from Drew for so long and now I'm estranged from Asa, and
Clint has gone out of the country to avoid Pa. I don't want that for
my little boy, Red. I think it'd kill me to go through that again,
knowing he could end up like me and Clint, and Drew, hating his father.
Nora: Drew didn't end up hating you, though. Matthew won't hate you, Bo.
Bo: He will if we're not raising him together.
Nora: I'm not going to keep you out of Matthew's life, you know. I would
never do that.
Bo: After what I went through with Lindsay, I really thought about what
I wanted in a marriage and who I wanted to be married to. I miss you.
Nora: I miss you, too. I'm sure Lindsay's fit to be tied if she knows.
Bo: I don't even talk to her. You and me, we haven't completely lost
what we used to have, and now we have a big reason to rebuild. I'd
like to try.
Nora: Me, too. After the court stuff. Let's get down to that court
stuff right now, in fact.
Bo: Let's rock'n'roll. I want my life back.
[Scene ends.]
[Scene: Mid-morning, PH2 Livingroom.]
Todd: (On the couch writing on a legal pad propped on his bent knees.)
Tea: (Standing over him, arms crossed casually across her chest.)
Remember when Georgie was killed?
Todd: (Still writing:) Your friend did it, and I got framed for
it until she confessed.
Tea: She panicked. Georgie was going after Nora and Rachel was
determined that Georgie wouldn't hurt her mother anymore, and that
Georgie would also stop hurting Rachel herself.
Todd: (Looks up at her.) Nora's kid wanted me to take the rap, and
you know it. They've never liked me. Panic or no panic, she wanted
to pin the blame on me.
Tea: Do you blame them? You had Nora represent you on Marty's rape case
when you knew you were guilty as sin, you stalked Nora when she was
blind, you and Bo have been at each other's throats for years, and so
have you and Hank.
Todd: And?
Tea: You don't think they might have some small reason for not liking you?
Just a tiny little bit?
Todd: Who me? Everybody likes me, I'm on the top of everyone's list.
Tea: Yeah, the one they save for those marked for deletion.
Todd: Oh, cute. Now I'm just some mark on a paper.
Tea: Many marks on many papers, and I don't just mean the Sun.
Todd: Ok, so I gotta record. Sue me.
Tea: I could.
Todd: You won't.
Tea: Why did you leave me the night you proposed, of all nights?
Todd: I panicked. You'd said yes and I didn't know what to do if you
said yes. How could I measure up to Bible Boy, you know?
Tea: So you've said. At least you're much calmer about it this time
around.
Todd: Tea...
Tea: Mmm?
Todd: I -- (sighs heavily, looks down a moment) -- Ok. You know how
I was that first time we went over this stuff. You ripped me to shreds
and raked me over the coals and I didn't know if I was coming or going.
I let you rip into me because I needed to get at some stuff and I knew
no matter how much it hurt you weren't doing it to hurt me. It hurt like
hell and I hope we never have to do that again. (He's tossed the pad
and pen to the floor and is now hugging his knees against himself.)
Tea: About the night Rachel killed Georgie?
Todd: (Looks up at her.) Yeah? You never give up, do you?
Tea: No, I don't. Especially not about you, and believe me I've tried
to give you up. I understand you were scared when I'd said yes, but
that night everything went to hell all of a sudden.
Todd: Tell me about it.
Tea: And about me and Andrew?
Todd: Yeah?
Tea: For your information, you're better than Andrew.
Todd: Did I really need to know that? No, don't repeat it. I never
wanted it confirmed. I don't even want to know how long you were boffing
him, or how many times. Bible Boy, (scoffs:) ha! he's got his god on his
side, I'm the Devil Incarnate. Well, at least the bastard son of the
Devil Incarnate.
Tea: How did you wind up at the lodge?
Todd: Wandered around in my car. I just went for a drive to clear my
head, I had no idea I was anywhere near that place. I stopped, the door
was open, I realized where I was, and you know the rest.
Tea: Why did you take the gloves?
Todd: The bat. I found it in the dark, remember? My prints were all
over it so I looked for something to get them off with and when I found
the gloves I heard Bo driving up and knew I had no more time. I was so
sure it was Bo.
Tea: You panicked?
Todd: Freaked, yeah. I had to hide, I figured I was about to be framed
by the Bukes again so I moved the body. I didn't have enough time to
give her a proper burial then, but I said a few words and covered her with
brush. (Unfurls from the couch and stands.)
Tea: Which is why you later gave her a proper grave and flowers.
Todd: Yeah. I dunno, if I'd known what she was like maybe I wouldn't've
done it. How I didn't get her blood all over me I'll never figure out.
Not even on my shoes.
Tea: I guess I'll never quite get how you can switch so readily and fast
from a compassionate person to someone so cold-blooded.
Todd: It's a gift.
Tea: Yeah, that's you: "gifted".
Todd: Yep.
Tea: Moving the body was stupid, but you knew that.
Todd: I am not stupid.
Tea: Sometimes I do wonder.
Todd: You know I've done a lot of stuff in my life that wasn't too bright.
Tea: You can say that again.
Todd: (Scowls at her.) I won't. (Picks the pad and pen up off the
floor.) I'm going to work.
[Scene ends.]
[Scene: Sam's office mid-morning same day.]
Sam: (On phone:) Tea?
Tea: (In her office:) Yeah?
Sam: Sam.
Tea: Oh.
Sam: We still on about the custody stuff?
Tea: Yours or mine?
Sam: Mine.
Tea: Yeah. Why wouldn't we be?
Sam: I just thought that... well...
Tea: I don't think it's under Conflict Of Interest. Conflict Of
Logistics is a whole other matter.
Sam: That could be a challenge, yeah. Same Judge. Goldberg, right?
Tea: Yeah. No, we're still a go on this. You ok?
Sam: Not really, but I haven't got a choice.
Tea: You still want to go through with this?
Sam: Yeah. I mean, I raised that baby, you know?
Tea: He's not yours.
Sam: Neither's Starr.
Tea: I'm with her father, you're not with Nora.
Sam: I want to try.
Tea: I have to be honest, but you really don't have much of a shot. You also know Nora doesn't want you back. I've been before this same judge about Starr before.
Sam: You backing out?
Tea: No, being honest.
[Scene ends.]
TO BE CONTINUED
[Scene: Carlotta's kitchen, early mid-morning same day.]
