STOLEN CHANCES - PART TWENTY ONE

PREVIOUSLY

"And Marisa is Tea's middle name," Todd adds.

"It's nice that you're honoring them both, Todd," Viki says has she puts her arm around her brother. "It's a very nice name."

They both stand there, looking through the window at the baby for awhile, constantly amazed at the new things they discover about her each minute, and even more amazed at how much they grow to love her each second. Todd kisses his fingertip and places it to the window by the baby's cart. "Welcome to the world, Ana Marisa Manning. I love you."

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Todd sits sadly next to Tea's hospital bed. It's been almost twelve hours since her emergency cesearean, and she still hasn't regained consciousness. The doctors couldn't tell him much about the effects of the poison. All they could tell him was to be patient and wait for it to leave her system. And that's what he's been doing. Waiting and wondering how she could end up like this.

His mind flashed back to the party and the moment Blair arrived with Roscoe. "She must have had something to do with this whole thing," he says to a nonresponsive Tea. "But why? Why would she do this? How could she hurt the kids like this? Especially Starr?"

"I can't answer that either" Todd is startled by a voice from behind him. He turns around to see Michelle standing in the doorway. "I don't think anyone but Blair can answer that, Todd," Michelle says as she walks over to the other side of Tea's bed. "How is she, Todd?"

"Look at her. She's just laying there. She hasn't woken up since they found her at the house with Roscoe. It was some sort of poison that penetrated her skin. I don't even think she knew what had happened." Todd grabs Tea's hand, gently stroking it.

"And the baby?" Michelle asks quietly, almost in a whisper.

"So far everything is okay. The doctors tell me that 9 out of 10 babies born after the seventh month survive. And Tea was almost 8 months along. She just needs a little time in the neonatal unit to finish developing."

"That's good. The kids will be glad to hear that."

"The kids!" Todd exclaims suddenly. "Michelle, I'm so sorry. I left you all night with the kids. I've been here the whole time and between Tea and the baby, I completely forgot to see how they were."

"Todd, they're fine. Starr went right to sleep as soon as we got back to Viki's. Ryan's been wandering around aimlessly, though. He's pretty worried about Tea."

"Do they know what happened? I mean with the poisoning and the baby?"

"We didn't tell them anything, Todd. But they knew Tea was here in the hospital. And they wanted to come see her."

As if on cue, two small heads came poking through the door.

"Can we come in, Daddy?" Starr says solemnly. She looks over to the hospital bed and sees Tea laying unconsciously on the bed. "Is Tee going to be alright?"

Todd notices the sad look on the little girls face. The little girl couldn't love Tea anymore if she were her real mother. He can see that she is distressed to see her stepmother like this.

"Come here, sweetie," he says lifting Starr up on his lap. "Ryan, come stand us." Todd looks at both of them, trying to find words of comfort and explanation to ease their little minds. "You guys, Tea is sick. That bad man gave her some bad medicine that's making her sleep for awhile. But the doctors say that as long as she's sleeping like this, they can give her some good medicine to make the bad medicine go away. It's just going to take a little while."

"Where's the baby, Daddy?" Starr asks, not sure she wants to hear the answer. Her face lightens when Todd smiles at her.

"I'm glad you asked that, Shorty. Your baby sister is in another hospital room. We can go see her if you want."

"A girl? It's a girl?" Starr is quiet for moment.

"Starr, what's wrong?" Michelle asks the child, noticing her silence.

"Well, I was kind of hoping for a little brother. But, a sister is good too."

Everyone laughs. It feels good to have the tension broken for a little while.

"Starr, my princess. I can't really grant you that wish. But, I can do you one better." He looks over at Michelle, and she smiles back nodding. As if to tell him that now would be right to tell Starr about Ryan. "I can't give you a [little] brother right now, but how about a big brother?"

Starr looks confused for a minute, but then sees Todd glance at Ryan and gets a huge grin on her face.

"Ryan? Ryan's going to be my brother? Are we going to adopt him?"

"I don't have to Starr." He looks at her and pauses for a moment, trying to figure out how to make her 6 year old mind understand. "Ryan's mommy and I were friends a long time ago. We loved each other a lot and we made a baby. But something happened and we couldn't see each other. I didn't know about that baby until just recently. Starr, Ryan was that baby. He's my son. Do you understand? I'm his daddy and Michelle is his mommy. That means, he's your brother."

They all look at Starr to see how she's absorbing the news. She's shocked for a while, not really knowing how to process what's she's just heard. But then she remembers hearing the words that Ryan was her brother. That was all she cared about.

"Ryan? Ryan's my brother? Cool!" she says, her confusion turning into a bright smile as she runs over to him. "That means you get two baby sisters!"

"Speaking of baby sisters, can we go to the nursery now?" Ryan wants to know.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Todd says, leaning over to kiss Tea on the cheek. "I'll be right back, Delgado. I'm not leaving you. Ever," he whispers into her ear before turning to walk out the door with the others.

TO BE CONTINUED