IMPOSTER - PART TWO

From Part One:

Pete laughed silently to himself as he descended the stairs. This was going to be too easy and very stimulating. Poor Delgado looked like she had seen a ghost. You don't know who you're dealing with yet, baby, he thought derisively. The fun part will be letting her know it little by little -- not all at once. Mental torture was a game he loved to play and his specialty. It had worked so well with Marty. This was even better, though. Delgado was his wife and she had actually consented to coming back to live with him. Big mistake.

Part Two continued:

Tea walked down the stairs and smelled the wonderful aroma of bacon sizzling. So he really was going all out for her today. When had Todd ever been a visitor to the kitchen? Usually there was someone else doing the cooking or he ate out. His help had long since left, and now they were the only two in the penthouse.
The dining room table had been set and the melon was already out on the table with freshly brewed coffee. Tom walked in holding a glass pitcher of orange juice. Everything looked perfect, but when she saw him, there was something very odd about his appearance. What was it? He looked very handsome, as usual, but the tee-shirt he had worn yesterday had been replaced by a jet- black pullover which had a zipper that went down the middle. The zipper had been pulled down all the way revealing quite a bit of his upper chest. It was completely unlike Todd to wear something like this, and her doubts appeared again about whether he was faking or not. If this was a clever way to show that he was a different person, then the effect was quite dramatic.

He caught her staring at his chest and she lowered her eyes immediately. Got you, Delgado! You'd better get used to it because I won't be dressing like that schoolboy Tom, or that conservative publisher, Todd, with his trendy Armani suits. Let her puzzle over this. He was going to take the Ferrari into town today and get some clothes he could cut loose in. He had looked through Todd's closet and found nothing even remotely suitable to his tastes. Not one article of clothing with black leather. How disappointing, Todd!
They sat down at the table and Tea smiled as she saw the plate of steaming, hot waffles. "Thank you, Tom, for doing all this."
"Oh, you're welcome, Tea. I wanted us to have a nice breakfast together. By the way, he changed the subject quickly, "I really like that blouse you're wearing today. It's a very pretty color on you and looks like it's very soft."
Tea heard him say the last word with a slightly different inflection -- as if he were thinking of what her blouse would be like to touch. No, it couldn't be. Could it? The remark was just a bit too personal a comment, but Tom had been making some rather personal statements lately. She decided to pretend that he meant nothing by it and go on with her meal.
"Sam's coming over today to talk about some things with me. He sure is a great guy, isn't he, Tea? Todd could never have made it without him."
"Yes, he has always been a good friend to uh...Todd, hasn't he?"
"Yeah, good ole' Sam! Except I wish he wouldn't have been so gone on that Nora Buchanan. She's a real spiteful broad." He munched on a piece of bacon without batting an eye.
Tea nearly choked on a piece of melon she was eating. She was becoming more and more mystified by his behavior. First, there was Tom and his guilelessness and now he was saying things like this. Todd had never called any woman "a broad" -- at least not in front of her.
Pete cackled inside himself with the look he had exacted out of Tea. He loved it when her large, soft lips got all pouty with worry. You think you're having a tough time of it now, my love, just wait and see who I really am. Tom would even like this little game. I'm the cat and you, Tea, my dear sweet wife, are the mouse.
"Are you going over to the office today...Tom?" Tea interrupted his thinking.
"Oh, yes! I can't wait! Todd never really wanted me to be there. He thought I was in the way. Now I can go over and check out all the things he does," he said, smiling in a gleeful way.
"Well, does anyone know you're coming back...like Briggs?" she asked.
"Oh, sure! I called Briggsy this morning. He's such a funny guy! Todd always gave him a really hard time about everything, but Briggsy has always been really good to Todd. "Uh, Tea?" he added as she wiped her mouth with a napkin.
"Yes, Tom?"
His eyes lowered timidly as he spoke again. "I was wondering if you could come home early tonight for dinner. I have something really special planned for you. It's gonna be a surprise." He grabbed his glass of juice as he said this and drank it down with gusto.
"A surprise?" Tea's eyes widened. "Well, you've really aroused my curiousity now, Tom!"
Pete put on his best Tom face for her. "Don't you just love surprises? I do! I really think you're gonna love this one, Tea!" He grinned like the Cheshire cat as she tried to smile at his enthusiasm.
"Okay, Tom. I should be home fairly early today."
"Goody!" he said and reached over to take her plate as she rose from the table.
"It was very good, Tom," she said, commenting on the breakfast. What in the world was he up to now? She didn't think she could stand the wait until she would find out what he had planned for their evening together.

Viki Lord Carpenter sat at her desk at the Banner. She had just had a call from her friend, Susana, who had told her that she was coming in on a late flight this evening. Viki felt so relieved that she was coming. With Todd in the midst of who knew how many alters within him, someone as brilliant as Susana was needed to help him put back the pieces to the puzzle of his identity. Susana had been her lifeline back into a normal world, and Todd certainly wouldn't make it on his own. She knew she had to support him as much as she could right now. There were too many others who could tear away the very fabric of his existence and the result could be deadly -- for him.
She shook her head sadly as she stacked some papers on her desk. Todd and Tea had had such a promising beginning to their reconciliation. So much had come between them that there was only a very slim chance that they could survive all this. Tea had agreed to stay with Todd temporarily since Tom had begged her to be with him. She could really sympathize with Tea, and she knew that her life had been turned upside down by her unconventional brother. Life was never quite as anyone wanted it to be.

The intercom to her office broke into her thoughts. She had an outside call. Her secretary told her that it was a Mr. Manning.
"Tom?" she said as she switched the call to the speakerphone in the office.
"Viki, you have to listen to me! You've got to call Tea at her office and tell her not to come home tonight. I can't explain, but you've got to do this!"
Viki listened carefully as the caller spoke. This was her brother's voice. She would know it anywhere. "Todd?" she leaned forward in her chair with an excited expression on her face.
"Viki, tell her to stay at the Palace. She cannot come home! Promise me this, Vik!"
"Todd! Please! If this is you, you have to give me more than that!"
The agitation level increased in the voice on the speaker. "If you believe in me as you've always said, Viki, you'll do this with no questions asked! You know me better than anyone. I'm counting on that!"
Viki sighed and frowned. What was he hiding? Did this have anything to do with his alters? Yet she picked up on the extreme urgency in his tone and knew that he had reached out to her in desperation. Something was wrong -- terribly wrong, and he knew it.
"All right, Todd. I will call her, but..." Todd cut off the end of her sentence like a knife slicing through something. "Thank God, Viki!" The phone line changed back to a dial tone leaving Viki staring out into space in amazement at what had just happened.
Thank God, Viki? When had Todd ever thanked God for anything? She shuddered with some sense of an unknown enemy and quickly tried to refocus for what she had to do.
"Sara, will you get me Tea Manning at her office, please?" She tapped her fingers in frustration on the desk. As usual her brother was sparing with his explanations and very cryptic. She didn't know what she would tell Tea in order to get her to stay at the Palace. She knew she wouldn't believe her if she said that Todd had called her. It just wouldn't make sense, and besides Tea was very low on trust in Todd right now. No, she had to invent something. Hadn't Todd said something a while back about painting the penthouse? Maybe she could convince Tea that Tom had called the painters and the place was a mess. She didn't like lying, but she didn't know what else to do. Tea still had her suite at the Palace and probably some clothes over there. God, Todd! Nothing is every simple when you're involved!"
"I'm sorry, Viki," Sara's voice broke in over the intercom. "Tea's office said that she has already left for the day."

~ TO BE CONTINUED ~