B9/Ch5: A FLASH IN HER EYE

A frantic moment at Welshport Hope

A night of strange occurrences was not new to the village of Welshport. There had always been a shapely shadow that lurked in a dark alleyway, a gauzy ghost-ship lost at sea that suddenly appeared out in the bay floating into the moon light. Mysterious footsteps and whispers that belonged to no connected body to this earth and yes— violent attacks that shook the village social structure.

This was the story on this very night at Welshport Hope Hospital after a violent attack on the streets of the village. 

Cora Taylor rushed there to find her adopted brother bruised, battered and broken from an assault in the foggy mists of the night. 

Baxter's face was swollen, his bottom lips split like a watermelon crushed by an iron mallet. Dr. Ward noted his cracked ribs and left orbital bone. 

"Why would anyone do this to him?" She asked, not realizing the irony and Baxter's infamous stature in town. 

"Someone quite deranged, I'd say Miss Taylor." Dr. Ward replied, as Lear and Lucas arrived for support.

"What happened?" Lear questioned in a frantic tone, worried about his one-time love.

"I'll let you explain, if that's alright Miss Taylor, I have a few patients to check, but I'll be back in a few." 

Cora smiled and thanked the chief of staff and turned back to her biological brother Lear and grabbed his hand. "Thank you for coming." She whispered as they went over to sit. "Baxter was attacked tonight, and they really hurt him. He's.... he's in rough shape." 

"Did he say who did this?" Lucas asked, Cora shook her head no.

"This is awful. I mean Baxter is pretty popular in town I can't imagine who'd want to hurt him." Lear replied.

"Popular?" Lucas replied with a glint of surprise. "I don't want to sound..." he paused searching for the word in English, "insensível" he said in his native Portuguese. "Insensitive," he continued, "but he might have more enemies that you realize." 

"Well you're not wrong," Cora answered. "but he's still my brother. No one deserves the kind of physical abuse he's suffered." 

As the trio discussed Baxter's attack outside his hospital room, Welshport's new Constable Justin Ryan, questioned Baxter who answered as best he could with a fat lip and a headache that pounded with every beat of his pulse. 

"And you said that the person came from behind you, and when you turned you didn't see their face?" Justin asked.

"It was too fast." Baxter answered. "Just too fast. Too dark." 

"Could you tell what they were wearing?" Justin continued, bur Baxter shook his head no. "Anything distinct about a face? Or a nose? Anything?" 

Baxter shook his head but replied "Taller. Taller than me, slightly." 

Justin nodded as he wrote basically nothing down on his pad as the other's entered the hospital room. Baxter smiled, as best he could with his stitched up face, and Cora rushed to his side. Her flowing dress crumbled up like a ball of paper as she quickly reached for the seat and her adopted brother's hand.

"I'm so sorry, Bax, I wish I could make it all better. You didn't deserve this, no matter what anyone says." She told him. Baxter smiled, again as best he could, and patted her hand.

"I'll see what I can do with what we have, but Mr. Murphy, if you recall anything else, even the slightest bit of information, please let me know." Justin replied.

"Bite." Baxter suddenly recalled, "I bite him. His hand. I bit him." 

"You bit him! Ok! This is good. At least we know that, which hand?" Justin asked, quickly writing it down. 

"Left." 

"Ok. That's a start." 

"Thank you, Constable...???" Lear replied, fishing for his last name. 

"Ryan."

"Like Father Ryan?" Lucas asked connecting the last name to Welshport's parish priest. 

Justin smiled "My big brother, yes. He finally found a way to get me to move to town. An open position and a brother who desperately needed to work -- I'm very lucky. Anyway, please, if there's anything else you recall, give me a call." Justin said, as he excused himself from the room. 

"We should maybe let Baxter rest." Lear said as the Constable left the room.

Cora nodded and kissed Baxter on the side of his check, Baxter winced with pain as even the slightest touch made his battered body ached. 

Outside Lear's expression turned even more serious. His mind saddened by what happened to Baxter but at the same time concerned with another much more pressing issue: Cora's possession of her adoption papers, papers she was not allowed to have.

"Coraline, listen, I know this is probably a terrible time to do this but Lucas has told me about what the two of you did. The matter of your adoption, I know is important because of its illegal nature and I didn't help matters by hiding the truth from you, but those forms, those papers, everything that you took from the office, I need returned. Eden Syndney, the D.A., will have my head if he knew they're gone." 

Lucas looked at his feet, embarrassed about it all, it had been his idea after all to break into Lear's office and take the forms so that Cora could find out what happened in her illegal adoption. Lucky for him, and or Lear, Cora had read through everything and had gotten what she needed.

"Of course, of course, we made a mistake." She said. "I'll bring them over to you tomorrow morning. You won't have to worry." 

"Did you at least find anything that could help?" Lucas asked. "Any answer to a question?" 

Cora nodded. "I did." 

"Oh?" Lucas wondered. 

"Well, I mean not more than the name Ridgway as the person who signed off with Henry Lockwood. That's really as far as I've gotten, and it's actually a very good lead. As soon as Bax is better, I'll do what I can do look this person up." She answered.

"How?" Lear wondered.

Cora smirked, she knew she couldn't give away her own secrets, she'd been working as a liaison for Jacob Lord for a short time, and with everything at his disposal she knew at some point she could pull his resources. Jacob's influence and power stretched far and wide -- for the right price, Jacob would do anything. 

"I have my ways. Ridgeway, will not get away with this." She said.

Dr. Ward walking back to the group suddenly heard his wife Laurel's maiden name, and stopped.

"Ridgeway? Laurel?" He asked them.

They turned to him and did not answer just stared. 

"What did you say?" Lucas asked.

"Ridgeway." Dr. Ward replied. "You said Ridgeway, that's my wife Laurel's maiden name. Did I mishear?" 

Before Lucas could reply No, Coraline chimed in "YES! Yes, Dr. Ward, yes, I said right away, I wanted to get back into Baxter's room right away." 

"Of course, let's see how he's doing." Dr. Ward said, escorting her in, but not before Coraline shot Lucas and Lear a look of disbelief. 

The two men looked at each other with the same look, and wondered, was Dr. Peter Ward's wife behind the black-market baby stealing all those years ago?

****

Celeste meets with Dr. Julian Pascal

The next day, a sunny morning burned off the sea fog allowing seagulls to find their way back to land. They screeched and squawked over large fishing trawlers heading out to the open sea passing Welshport Island as both creature and machine floated off into the distance.

Over the cliffside and across green cattle pastures, Welshport Hope Hospital glowed in the light of day. The garden area between the main hospital and Churchill Green asylum felt bright and busy with patients and their nurses getting fresh air. 

 
One such patient was Johnathon DeViana who'd been walking arm in arm with his estranged with Jacqueline who'd magically shape-shifted into a nurse calling herself Isabela. The two were awaiting the arrival of Johnathon's sister Celeste and her son Fabian for a visit. 

"She's late." He said to Isabela.

"She'll be here, just relax. It's not exactly a hop skip and a jump from Tirymor you know. She said she'd bring your nephew. She's probably had to prepare him for what he'd see when he got here." Isabela said.

"Jacq--" Johnathon before remembering to call Jacqueline by her fake name while she masquerading in her magic shapeshifted body, "I mean Isabela, you know that I'm not insane. My sister knows this too. Why am I still here? In this place? Why can't I just go home. You said. Dr. Pascal was getting these ready for me to leave." 

"I can't answer that, Johnny. We just have to wait for what he tells Celeste today. She's been designated as your conservator until you're released. It's up to her." She replied. 

Inside an office in Churchill Green, Celeste sat stoically in a glamorous dress and hat next to her fidgety five-year-old son Fabian. Dr. Julian Pascal, the new head of psychiatry at Hope Hospital was still setting into his office. Several boxes has yet to be unpacked from their trip across the county from San Francisco. 

He was a man in his late 30s, with a thick head of lush brown hair and a mustache that tickled the bridge of his nose when he said certain words that pushed his lips up. Celeste noticed his boyish side smile when they talked of pleasantries, he was slightly younger than her, but very much attracted her eye. She felt herself constantly worrying about her appearance in front of him, but those silly side effects to the new doctor's beauty quickly faded when the conversation of Johnathon began.

"I appreciate your meeting with me first, Mrs. Lord, and I won't keep you. I know Johnaton is waiting for you in the plaza. But I did want to give you a quick update on him before you had a chance to spend some time with him." Julian said, flipping open Johnathon's file.

"Of course, doctor, I appreciate you too... taking the time I mean, to sit with us." Celeste replied reaching for Fabian to keep himself seated.

"Johnathon is on a medication, as you know, that is helping him manage his emotions more clearly. These medications refocus his mind, in a sense, and by doing that he's able to make better judgements, understand situations better and keep his mind clear of anything that perhaps might cloud that judgement. In my few sessions with him I've noticed how wonderful he's come along."

"That's wonderful! Isn't that wonderful, Fabian, Uncle Johnny is doing really well, you see! I told you so." Celeste said to her son, trying again to keep him relaxed in the very boring office setting.

"Yes, indeed. I think that he'll be ready to be discharged very soon. Will he be staying with you and your husband?"

"That's wonderful news, yes he will be spending time with us at Tirymor. I think it's not a permanent situation, however. I think his nervous breakdown is too rooted there. We may have a better place for him, but we're making sure it'll be suited for his return before that. Its an apartment in the village, an apartment near my husband's office. It's a place Jacob had set up long ago for long nights at the office. He'd stay there instead of coming home." Celeste explained.

"Very good. I'm sure it'll be perfect. Now, the subject of his estranged wife has come up often, has anyone in the family spoken to Jacqueline since she disappeared?" the doctor questioned.

"No, not since she vanished from Tirymor the night the mob arrived. After her miscarriage I think she should have stayed too, maybe she could have found some help here herself. But, Jacqueline, well she's of another world." Celeste replied.

"Oh? What do you mean?" Julian wondered.

Celeste wasn't sure exactly; she didn't know how to explain it herself in a way that wouldn't make her too sound like she needed help from a psychiatrist. The truth was Celeste had never trusted, nor understood Jacqueline's appeal to Johnathon. Nothing had ever made sense regarding their relationship. The truth was, Jacqueline's bewitchment of him with a love curse held, and held tightly to his heart. Nothing had broken it. Not her love for Sebastian, not insanity, not a wild angry mob destroying parts of Tirymor house, not a miscarriage caused by a stabbing. Nothing. 

But Celeste only shrugged it off to Dr. Julian Pascal as a love affair that puzzled her. 

"I guess every family has them. I for one shouldn't judge. My own marriage was a source of shock for many." She confessed. 

Julian smiled politely as his eyes shifted over to the little boy sitting in front of him, the product of the very marriage she spoke up. Celeste cleared her throat realizing the awkward moment and excused herself. 

"Please, Mrs. Lord, I wish you all the best, and to you too young Fabian. I hope you enjoy your visit with Uncle Johnny." 

Julian then came around his desk, his body perfectly formed in his brown suit, the shapes of his arms strong in the sleeves, his legs thick and like tree trunks made Celeste take a second look. His eyes twinkled as he reached for her hand and kissed it softly.

"Good day doctor." She said softly.

As they left the office, Fabian spouted out "FINALLY!" and ran down the corridor. His steps echoing all the way until he reached the door at the end that lead to the courtyard. Celeste removed a handkerchief from a pouch at her side and dabbed her neck. She looked back at the office door and Julian was leaving to make rounds at the hospital. 

He winked and waved. She gulped and waved back at the handsome new doctor. 

**

Hospital Courtyard 

Outside, under a canopy of birch and beech trees, Johnathon happily hugged his growing nephew tightly. The uncle couldn't believe how much taller the young boy had gotten in the few months of his time in the hospital. 

As Celeste caught up, Isabela made her way back towards the hospital. 

The two women crosses each other's paths and made eye contact.

Celeste stopped in her tracks and watched as the nurse, who almost seemed to float back into Churchill Green with such grace and ease. Celeste clinched her jaw. She seemed familiar, about the woman, yet she had never seen her before this day.

"Are you just going to stand there!?" A voice called from the canopy. Celeste turned back, her younger brother waited with open arms for her hug. 

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry I’m late. I've missed you." Celeste said, entering into Johnathon's hug.

"Alright. Go, on, tell me." He said sitting with her on a bench. "When can I leave? I feel much, much more sorted. I really do. I've been here long enough." 

"I think your doctor just wants a bit more time, not too much, and then you'll be discharged. Really Johnny its for your own good." Celeste recalled.

Fabian huffed and chimed in.

"But he wants to come home so we can play in the hedge maze!" 

"The hedge maze?" Celeste laughed, the very specific choice of playground surprised her. "There are many more and better places to take Uncle Johnny, aren't there?" 

"NO!" Fabian shouted playfully.

"NO!" Johnathon shouted back just as playfully. "A big scary monster lives there, doesn't he Fabian? Us two DeViana men need to find him, take him down, and drag him back to where he belongs!" Johnathon continued playfully. 

Celeste smiled, but behind her calmness she realized just how true some of their play was. The dangers that always seemed to find the men in her life, big scary monsters and other shadowy figures that could never stay away for long. 

Those things weren't so hidden at Tirymor and often times wasn't such a far-off fantasies of a boy like Fabian. Sometimes, those pretend monsters escaped their hedge maze prison and became real. And considering Johnathon's many run-ins with them, she worried. She wanted Johnathon far, far away from anything that would trigger his fragile mental health. Her mind suddenly changed on him returning with her for a short time.

"We'll have to save that for another time." Celeste said, surprise both her brother and her son.

"What? What do you mean?" Johnathon asked turning from his play with Fabian. 

"Like I said honey, you'll have to stay a bit longer and when Dr. Pascal sees fit, you'll be released but, perhaps not Tirymor as we planned." 

"Why not? It's my home too. I'm just as much a lord as Jacob is. Just as much as Fabian is." Johnathon recalled, refreshing her memory of his own paternal connection, Albert Lord. 

She grabbed his hand and held it in her lap. "You'll have to trust me on this. Ok? Just trust me on this." 

Johnathon yanked his hand from hers and stood up. He stared down at her still sitting on the bench, she slowly lifted her head, one eye slightly visible from under her tilted hat. 

"You lied to me." He said.

"You've been telling me all this time that once the new psychiatrist came, he'd assess me and release me back to Tirymor. Celeste, I belong there, do you understand me, I BELONG THERE!" He shouted. 

His voice startled a few of the more uneasy patients in the courtyard. Celeste nervously noticed this as two orderlies made notice too. They slowly made their way over. 

Fabian froze.

"YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE LIED TO ME!" Johnathon shouted.

"Johnny keep your voice down." Celeste answered, her voice soft and calming.

"Everything alright?" one of the two orderlies asked.

"Fine." She said.

"NO! Not fine. I want to speak with Dr. Pascal. I want to see him now, take me to him." Johnathon ordered.

"Uh, well, ok." The orderly replied, grabbing patient DeViana by the forearm and leading him back into the hospital.

Fabian whimpered like a hurt puppy; he walked over to his mother and sat on the bench next to her. He grabbed her hand, the same one Johnathon tossed aside in anger at her. "Why did he get so angry?" the child asked.

Celeste took a breath and shook her head. "Uncle Johnny is fighting a big scary monster." She wasn't sure how else to explain Johnathon's mental breakdown. The thing that brought him to this hospital in the first place. The scars of tragedy after tragedy, mind distortion after mind distortion. The monster, she wanted the boy to know was actually a thing, but he questioned her further as only a child could.

"Like the one in the hedge maze?" He asked.

Celeste shook her head, a single tear rolled down her cheek "No, baby." She replied comfortingly "In his mind."

**

Dr. Pascal & the shape-shifted Jacqueline into Isabel

Back inside the hospital, Jacqueline, still posing as nurse Isabel, was summoned to Dr. Pascal's office. She worried, as she held the doorknob, that something she had done while with Johnathon had set off an alarm with the new head of psychiatry. Perhaps she'd stayed too long in Johnathon's room. Perhaps she'd been seen holding his hand out in the garden. Perhaps Jacqueline's Isabela had made a stupid mistake.

"Doctor?" Isabela said, her voice clear and soft. "You asked to see me?"

"Yes, nurse --- what was it?" Julian asked as he stood up to shake her hand.

"Isabela." She said. 

"Your last name Isabela?" He asked, she hadn't thought of one, she searched her mind and in a split second replied "Prince" from her shapeshifted lips. 

"Isabela Prince." Dr. Pascal mentally confirmed. "There's no record of you here. I've gone over every personnel record and haven't found a single leaf of paper that has you on it."

Isabela feigned shock "Is that so? That is very odd, doctor." She replied stepping closer and closer to him standing behind his desk.

When Jacqueline first began sneaking into Churchill Green as Issa, she cleverly bewitched the entire staff to believing they knew her and had been working with her all this time. It was simple, really, a quick flash of her eyes and anyone who looked into them was quickly taken in and never asked a single question again.

No paper trail.

This was, of course, pre-Dr. Pascal's arrival and her smart little spell stared yet one more victim in the face. 

"I've been here. All. Along." She said slowly. Her words floating into the air like slow oozing molasses. "Did. You. Hear me?" She asked again slowly. 

Her eyes flashed a red spark, like a match hitting its red strip igniter. Her fell into her gaze and tilted his head wondering what that feeling in his mind was. He felt as if something was digging into his brain, a psychic mole burrowing deeper and deeper into his mind and suddenly her eyes struck that spark again.

He straightened his head, eyes wide in a flicker of motion that was fast and sharp.

"Of course!!" He said out of nowhere. Here we are! Your employee forms and identification information. Issa Ruis. Right here, in front of me." Dr. Pascal said, holding up a blank sheet of paper.

"There it is." Jacqueline, as Isabela replied, her smile like a Cheshire cat. "I guess I can now go back to my duty?" She asked.

"Please do.' He replied.

As she turned and went for the door, a sudden second surprise reply from the new head of psychiatry 

"And be sure to keep your time with Mr. DeViana is -- let's say -- professional? Yes?" 

She turned back to the doctor, his eyes, still in the haze of her flashing bewitchment but nothing could take away the fact he had indeed thought she'd been spending too much time with Johnathon. Perhaps that is why he looked for her employment paperwork.

She'd been sloppy with her attention to her estranged husband. She'd learned a lesson, Jacqueline had had enough of faulting in her schemes, this would be the last one.

"Yes sir." She said obediently and left.

Out of the office now, Johnathon came in with the orderlies ranting and raving. Their eyes met as he was dragged though the corridors and up a large white marble staircase that would eventually lead to his room. He wanted to see her again, but Jacqueline knew better. She wouldn't see Johnathon as herself or as nurse Isabela for a few days. She needed to keep her distance. 

Their secret rekindling had to wait.  

****

Nik & Danielle in the hospital lobby 

Over at the main hospital, a busy lobby kept nurses and attending doctors on their toes. People were getting back to their normal state of life so quickly after the bewildering times of the witch trials and Mayor Timothy's untimely death. More appointments to see doctors were being made; everything from indigestion and cold and flu to much more troubling illnesses that were difficult to treat in such a rural hospital. 

Dr. Nikolas Jordan stood in one of the corners of the lobby looking over Baxter Murphy's chart. The man had come in overnight battered broken from a sudden attack on the street. It wasn't so strange to hear that a person might have been fed up with Baxter's fixation on the more salacious headlines in town to the point if attacking him, but Nik felt a sinking feeling that it this attack was just the tip of the iceberg.

As he read over the papers, the woman he'd fallen in love with in (what he thought was) secret came over to him. 

She cheekily tapped the top of the folder he was reading with a pencil. His big hazel eyes lifted to see Nurse Danielle Holten standing there with a twinkle in her eye. 

"Hi." She said softly.

"Hi." He replied, just as softly, like a shy schoolboy meeting his crush in the halls. "I've missed you." He added.

Her low lip made a pretend pout and tapped him on the cheek, knowing she had to be as discrete as possible with their physical connection as no one yet knew about their love and he was still attempting to get Asha to tell him what had happened to the child Asha took from Aurora. 

This was only achieved by still pretending he was in love with her, although, the cat was out of the bag. Asha knew he was having an affair with Danielle thanks to Rebecca's meddling. 

"What has you attention today doctor?" Danielle asked.

"Oh!" Nik said, shaking his head as if to drag himself out of a fantasy and back into work. "I was reading over Murphy's chart. He came in last night after some sort of fight or attack. We're not really sure. Well Baxter's sure, he said he was attacked, but you know how he is. Truth sometimes slips away from his reality." 

"You don't think he was really attacked?" Danielle wondered.

Nik shrugged, "Maybe. He's been in fights before, fights he started himself. But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, no one else came in with any injuries so it does seem like an ambush." 

He showed Danielle the papers. She looked them over shocked at just how bad his injuries were, the noted the small, printed reference to what he told the new constable about his attacker. 

"Look." Danielle said, standing closer to Nik as she pointed to the words.

"He bit the person." Nik answered with both eyebrows up. "Well, that's definitely a good way to find out how did this." 

As the two stood practically shoulder to shoulder, Rebecca Lord-Casador entered the hospital. Her eyes quickly scanned the lobby spotting the two new lovers. Her heart felt as if it skipped a beat. Seeing Danielle there, happy as a calm, a new love in her life meanwhile her own was in shambles felt like a forest fire in her body that was out of control. 

Danielle was a physical symbol, the actual embodiment - flesh and blood - of who her now estranged husband once was: Viktor Holten. Viktor was a man who was not in love with Rebecca. He wasn't even in Rebecca's orbit before he met her with his possessed identity of Caspian. Even though Celeste was the person who exposed the Caspian to the truth of who he really was, Danielle felt more of a threat to Rebecca and her happiness with Caspian.

If Danielle remained near to him, he would always choose his past over his present. 

Rebecca could not stand this and saw Nik and Danielle as practically flaunting their secret love in her face. 

Rebecca turned her head to the side and quickly made her way in through the busy lobby, zig zagging through patients, visitors and staff and made her way to the golden elevator doors and quickly made her way to Asha Hoffman's hospital room.

Asha Hoffman -- a key player in Rebecca next big plan. 

**

Rebecca & Asha discuss their plan 

Rebecca quickly made her way passed a small nurses' station on the fourth floor of the hospital where Asha's room was. She darted passed a group of orderlies speaking with Dr. Peter Ward, her face turned away from the group hoping not to be noticed. 

It worked. 

Rebecca entered Asha's opened door room in a flurry of black and eggplant satin and closed the door behind her, not noticing Asha was standing at dresser packing a small bag with her things. 

"Mrs. Casador! What are you doing?" Asha said, somewhat startled at Rebecca's chaotic entry into her room.

"I was hoping not to be detected." Rebecca grinned. "Dr. Hoffman, what are you doing? Are you changing rooms?" She added, noting the packing.

"No! Dr. Ward said I could go home. He thinks I could better recuperate in my own surroundings." Asha replied. 

"But that's not what we talked about." Rebecca said, her face suddenly frozen in worry. "We agreed that you'd continue to pretend you had no memory of the night of the fire at the police station and we'd work together to remove our common enemy: Danielle."

Asha's stomach turned hearing the word enemy. "About that." the doctor said. "I'm rethinking our plan. Nikolas and I have a connection, whatever his feelings for Danielle are, are mostly because I've been trapped here for so long. Being in a coma for all that time, well I can see why he’d stray. Once I'm back in his world full time and back at work that'll change." 

Rebecca's hard expressions suddenly softened to pity. She could sense Asha's strong love for Nik Jordan like it was the scent of thick perfume in the air, hugging every inch of the room in its wild linger. But these were feelings that were brought by innocent puppy love, Rebecca thought, a naiveté that would only bring more heartache. And most of all it was not Rebecca's plan to give up.

"Don’t be naive, dear.” Rebecca said with an acidic bite. “Danielle has sunk her hooks into the man you love, and she's behind my issues with my husband. It's true, she wasn't alone in revealing his true identity to him, my daughter-in-law has as much to do with it as Danielle, but at the crux of this entire situation is that nurse. We had a deal. Together we could rid ourselves of the person whose come into our lives and uprooted both our relationships." Rebecca reminded. “Danielle must go.”

"I just think we're being too drastic." Asha replied, her voice softer and weaker in tone.

"Not at all, it needs to be done." 

Asha sat back down on her bed. She wasn't sure what to do next. She loved Nik with all her heart and felt that in part Rebecca might have a point. He was already slipping from Asha's grasp with Danielle. The question was, could she really -- in her heart of hearts -- do something that would make Danielle truly vanish from Nik's heart. 

Rebecca' saw the wheels turning in Asha's mind. She continued to push "The longer we wait, the quicker he moves on from her. It's only a matter of time." 

"Well, what do you have in mind?" Asha suddenly asked, as if to hear Lord matriarch out and then decide. 

Rebecca grinned and sat down on the hospital bed next to Asha. 

"So far all we know about this girl is that she's a nurse. Here at the hospital is where Dr. Jordan is around her the most, here at the hospital is where she encountered my husband when he was injured. So -- we illuminate her from the hospital. Have her removed."  Rebecca explained.

"Removed?" 

"Terminated." Rebecca added.

"How?"

Rebecca thought for a second. Her mind drifted off into memory of things she thought she'd left behind many, many years ago. 

*WINDCLIFF SANITARIUM, COLLINSPORT, MAINE 1870*

A young Rebecca & ill Albert at Windcliff 

A 31-year-old Rebecca sat in the hospital room of her husband Albert Lord. He had been admitted months earlier. His mind slipping faster and deeper into a psychosis no one could explain. Not a doctor, not a priest, not even Rebecca's very first spiritual guide could find the answers to Albert's mental faltering.

Rebecca, stood up from her cozy chair, her face plump and youthful. She walked over and placed Albert's hand in hers as his eyes slowly opened. 

"Becca." He whispered.

"Shh. Just rest. You've been awake for days." She answered.

"Where are the boys?" He asked, of ten-year-old Jacob and 8-year-old David.

"They're home. They're ok." She answered.

"Did I hurt them?" He asked, remembering the awful moment that changed their family forever. 

Rebecca nodded. "Shh." 

"Why did I do that? Why would you let me do that?" He asked, his body tensing again as the thought of his crime slowly slipped back into his mind. 

"Albert, stop, don't think of what happened just focus on rest." She replied.

"I can't! I keep seeing his little face. I keep seeing his eyes, his beautiful eyes opening underwater and .... and my hands around his neck holding him there." Albert confessed.

"Darling, you must not go back into that, you're ill. We all know you're ill. What you did to Jacob was... was illness." Rebecca explained.

The truth of the matter was indeed that Albert was ill. A shocking, terrifying illness of madness that fell over him like a dark ocean wave that swallowed his mind whole. In his psychosis, he attempted to drown his 10-year-old son Jacob in the sea, in a swirling feverish fight. No one could understand where this stemmed from, no one could put into words the horror of Albert's mind frame. But the boy was saved in the nick of time by the screams of Rebecca and little David upon finding the violent scene on the beach.

Back in the hospital room Albert's memory of what he had done, crept back into his mind. The power of the moment forced him into a wild seizure. He was frothing at the mouth, angry, yanking his hand out of Rebecca's. She screamed and fell back into the chair watching her husband writhe in the bed like she had never seen before. 

"NURSE!!! NURSE!!" Rebecca screamed. 

A nurse, in pure white, came quickly and gasped. She called for another nurse to bring the tincture of nightshade to help ease Albert's madness and body.

"QUICKLY! QUICKLY!" The first nurse instructed.

The second nurse, int the exact same uniform, entered in a blaze of pure white. She quickly administered the tincture of liquid into Albert's mouth, wiping away the small river of escaped liquid that dribbled out of his mouth.

"What is that? What are giving him?" Rebecca frantically questioned.

"Nightshade." The second nurse said, half haphazardly. 

"WHAT!!!" 

"No, no, it's not what you think. Its a diluted substance that will help him rest. It's not just the plant. He'll relax and become calm again." the first nurse explained.

"Won't it hurt him? Nightshade is poisious." Rebecca questioned, as the man she loved slipped from her more and more into his psychosis.

"No, the potency is at a low level, not anywhere near the point of poisoning. Its just enough to relax him."

"It's just enough." Rebecca whispered to herself as it to reassure her once more. But Albert, no matter which way she the story was told, was never the same again.

*PRESENT DAY*

"It's just enough." Rebecca said, her face now back to her current age of 77.

"What is?" Ashe asked. 

"The first thing we need to do, the most important, is to take her from this place. Then, everything else will fall into place." 

Asha took a breath and wondered what Rebecca could have meant.

"I just don't know how." 

"You leave that to me, just tell me where I can find the nurses' medication preparation room." Rebecca answered.

Asha thought for another quick second. The temptation of removing her romantic rival was as potent as anything in that medication room. It was real, it was in front of her ready for her to grasp and take control of and Rebecca would be the one to do all the dirty work. It was just one simple set of directions to the end of the hall, turn left, go down that hall and the room where all the nurses on that floor prepped medications, tonics, elixirs and found clean instruments would be found. 

All Asha had to do was send Rebecca there and that was it, the love-troubled doctor though, what Rebecca did was Rebecca's doing not Asha's. 

"Don't hurt anyone." Asha said. 

"No one will be hurt, I promise, just -- a little sleepier than normal." The Lord matriarch explained.

With those very ominous words, Asha gave Rebecca the directions to the room and off she went to take her next step in the plan to rid them both of Danielle's growing influence over the men they loved once and for all. 

  

B9/Ch4: RUMORS IN THE FOG

Aurora & Nik’s dinner interrupted by Baxter

It was a busy night in the village. The gas lanterns that dotted the cobble stone streets glowed inside the late spring fog and floated in suspension like fireflies in a murky mist.

Inside the just as busy Gramercy Cafe, Aurora Ashby-Jordan and her son Dr. Nikolas Jordan tried to enjoy a meal together, one that was marked with the sting of their missing family members Evie and Gabriel who had left town under dubious circumstances with Sebastian.

The worry on Aurora's face spoke volumes. She worried, as any mother in this family's situation would, that Evie and her son did not go on their own accord. Nik, for his part, felt this too but tried to keep his mother's hopes up that everything was fine with this sister and her child.

Suddenly, like a shark smelling blood in the water, Welshport's notorious reporter Baxter Murphy entered the cafe. Clocking the worried look on Aurora's face, he pounced. Rumors of Evie's departure hit The Globe's newsroom like a title wave. This coincidental run in at the Cafe made Baxter light up like one of the lanterns in the street in hopes of a Jordan family scoop. 

He quickly made his way over to the pair who did their best to avoid eye-contact.

"Well, what a wonderful coincidence." The reporter said, as Aurora and Nik slowly lifted their eyes from their meal. She smirked passive aggressively and asked how Baxter was. "Better now that I've run into the two of you, Mrs. Jordan." He answered.

Aurora shot a look at Nik.

"Whys that?" Nik asked.

"You see, there's a bit of a rumor swirling around our newsroom over at The Globe that, perhaps you two could squash -- that is if you'd be so kind." Baxter replied.

Nik narrowed his eyes "You want a quote from us on a rumor?"

Aurora reached over and gripped Nik's wrist. "We don't have anything to say, Baxter."

"You don't know what I'm going to ask yet, Mrs. Jordan." He smirked. "With all due respect." He added motioning for a waiter to bring over a third chair.

"With all due respect," Aurora returned "we have nothing to say about anything. Whatever it is." 

The chair arrived; Nik put his hand on the seat "Mr. Baxter will not be joining us." Nik replied.

"You don't have any idea why Matthew Winterborn suddenly went on some sojourn to Scottland? At all? It has nothing to do with his former paramour, your daughter Evie, suddenly leaving with what people say is a strange circumstance?" Baxter asked as the waiter confusingly took back the chair. 

"Look, Baxter, I thought you'd have already learned your lesson with getting mixed up in village gossip as news. You were, for better or worse, responsible for some very uninformed material in your column not too long ago." Nik replied, reminding Baxter of the disastrous columns linking Sebastian to the Moon wolf that created mass hysteria in the village.

Baxter arched a brow and smirked at Nik who'd just tried to one-up-him. 

"Last question..." Baxter asked unrelenting as Aurora scoffed at threw her napkin onto her place.

"Nikolas, let's go." She said standing up.

Nik stood up too.

"What about Caspian?" Baxter blurted out, freezing Nik in place as his eyes darted over to Aurora.

"What about him?" Nik asked, still staring at his mother who's face turned white.

"Another rumor is that Mr. Mysterio -- " Baxter joked of Caspian's mysterious past, "Caspian -- and his marriage to Welshport grande dame Rebecca is over. And he's back in someone else's arms — yours Aurora." 

"Mother, we should go." Nik answered.

"Caspian and Rebecca's marriage is their business, not yours Baxter. And certainly not mine." She said.

"But is that how it's done? He's left her for you? Because I heard she kept some very important info from him and it was just too much for the ol'man to take. He's left her. Again. For you." Baxter replied.

It was true, Rebecca's lies about and keeping Caspian's true identity from him, is what severed their once solid marriage. Aurora did take Caspian back in, despite their volatile passed, but she had no intention of giving Baxter any juicy comments.

"Baxter, listen, and listen well: find a better way of getting something out of someone. Confronting them at dinner, like you have, will only alienate you from more people you seek for your little columns. When you find that good journalist hidden deep, deep inside the snake that always seems to slither out first, send me a note and then maybe we'll talk." Aurora said. "Let's go Nikky."

As the Jordan's left Baxter standing there in the middle of the cafe everyone stared. They could see how unembarrassed Baxter was, his gall shined like the sun, his behavior infamous and some Welshportonians were frankly sick of him and his slithering around town for scoops on the most influential family in this corner of New England. 

As Aurora replaced her leather gloves and walked with Nik down to an area where a taxi would pick them up, Nik could see his mother's concern.

"Don't let him bother you." Nik said. "He's trying his best to get a reaction out of us. He has nothing, and a reaction from us will be his story." 

Aurora sighed and hugged her self for warmth in the foggy cold air. The moon reflected its gloomy light on her peach skin that made her almost shine. "I know you’re right. I'm just glad Caspian was late. To have Baxter there and Caspian at the same time would have been much, much worse." Aurora noted, revealing Caspian was supposed to have been at the dinner too.

"By the way, where is he? He's over 30 minutes late." Nik wondered.

Aurora shook her head "Probably still at home. Let's get there before he gets here and finds Baxter." 

Nik agreed and they both jumped into a shiny black cab. 

****

Christopher & Genevieve making love

That same night, in a small bungalow in the village hidden under several beech trees, a fire crackled in a hearth of the single bedroom. The smell of Gardena and floated in the air like French perfume; an invisible romantic fog cloaked the slick nude bodies of two lovers intertwined passionately in the white sheets as the fire warmed them. 

The hearth itself was a Victorian design; built of the same beech tree wood that grew outside and was painted forest green. On either side of the firebox were two large lions standing on laurel bushes silently roared into the room. 

Genevieve and Christopher stared into each other’s eyes in the glow of orange light from the fire and candles that lit the room. He felt silly when it realized just how strange it was to have just made love to a woman who was the exact double of his late wife Sabrina. It wasn't the first time he'd felt this way, and he knew it might not be the last.

But his feelings for Genevieve were singular, and genuine no matter her closeness in appearance to his late wife.

Yet for all those similarities the two women were extremely different. It could be that Sabrina died so long ago and was so young — Genevieve was like the living embodiment of who Sabrina may have become had she never met any of the Lords and died on Bellmore Beach. This was never far from Christopher’s mind. 

While still in the afterglow of their loving making and his deep thought on her connection to Sabrina, Genevieve ran her finger down Christopher’s naked thigh. She could feel the prickly hairs tickle her fingertips. She licked her lips and kissed him again, the warm kiss quickly pulling him out of own mind.

"You ok?" She asked.

He smiled and nodded then pulled her close. Every fold, every soft patch of her skin felt like soft silk. He smelled her hair that was still freshly scented from her bath. 

“We’ve come a long way from London.” He said, recalling their introduction. 

“Strange, isn’t it?” She replied. “On paper maybe we shouldn’t even be together. At least maybe on your end.”

“Why do you say that?” He replied although he already knew the answer.

“Chris,” she said, her voice a whisper under the crackling embers in the hearth. “It has to bother you, even a little, that you’ve fallen in love with someone that looks this much like Sabrina. Doesn't it make you feel even the slightest bit odd? Staring into her eyes? Kissing her lips? Touching her naked flesh once again?”

Chris looked at the beautiful raven haired woman and shook his head. He reached over and gently wrapped his hand around her neck and pulled in for another kiss, even deeper than the one before. 

“She’ll never be gone from my life. Whether it’s looking at your beautiful face or a painting of her or looking into my grandson’s eyes who has his father Sebastian’s eyes — who has Sabrina’s eyes. She’s all around. But you’re you Genevieve and only you. I’ve fallen for the woman whose spirit is hot like the sun, who never gives up and who is relentless in her love for the people in her life. Especially her son.” Chris said.

She smiled and curled into his arms as he held her. Their bodies warmed each other as she pulled the white sheets over their naked skin. 

“We can finally walk around town and not worry about anyone seeing us too. Finally — out in the open.” Genevieve replied happily. 

"And maybe soon get married start a family of our own. We both have to amazing sons, maybe one day..." He paused.

"Married and a mother again." She said, filling the void of silence. "I don't know. I love you, and it would be wonderful to share a child with you, a symbol of our love like that is a gift any couple would be lucky to have, but I feel that maybe we should repair our relationships with our sons before that. Don't you?" Genevieve replied.

Christopher sighed, "I don't know. Sebastian isn't the same, and in a way neither am I. He's moved on in ways that I can never understand, and I know he doesn't expect me to understand. But -- you would like to be married, wouldn't you?" 

Geneveive blushed. "Is this a proposal?" 

"I don't have a ring. Oh god, this is embarrassing. I didn't plan this right!" He laughed.

She grabbed his head in both hands and kissed him "Very unconventional--- I'd say its very 'us'."

"Yes, very us." He laughed. "I just hope Sebastian sees it that way.:

"He will." She said. 

"And Morgan?" 

"Morgan is a different story." Genevieve digressed. "I know he'll be happy for me, but still I don't know if he'll ever truly forgive me for leaving him here alone while I searched for you in London. After his father Steven died, and I came here with Johnathon I had promised I was building a new life for us. I've failed." 

As the two lovers lay in their warm bed, their naked bodies clinging to each other, a person slipped a tiny cook and pick into the lock of the front door of the bungalow. The person easily slid into the quiet front room and looked around picking things up and examining them.

The bungalow was quaintly decorated, sweet family photos and books of all sorts. Then, they turned towards the low murmur of talking in the bedroom and follow it into the hall standing outside the barley cracked open bedroom door.

The light shined on their face in a long stripe showing Coralina Taylor listening in. She had a job to do: spying on Christopher and Genevieve for Jacob.

Back in the room, Christopher lifted Genevieve's chin so that their eyes met. His moved a sliver a black hair that crossed her pale skin and shook his head. "You've done your best, and I would never say you've failed. Imagine, you were gone a few months form Morgan's life and I was gone years. You still have time to repair with Morgan. And I think you're right. Working it out with him first would perhaps be best for us all. I'd like to be closer to Morgan too." 

"I'd love that." She said, reaching up and combing her hand through his hair. 

He slowly rolled out from under her and lay over her again. His eyes meeting hers, locking in place. "I love that you love that." He smirked.

The fire continued to warm them. He kissed her neck, she moaned with delight as he slowly moved his head lower and lower down to her chest, her navel, her thigh and then to a spot that felt like the world exploded in her mind, like firecrackers in the summer, like waves crashing up against the cliffs.

They made love again; in the small bungalow they now called their own home. 

And just as silently as she came in, Cora had gone -- the hallway empty again. She'd gathered enough news for Jacob as she could on his back from the dead brother. 

****

Baxter being followed 

Back downtown, Baxter collected his things and paid his check at Gramercy Cafe. He said goodbye to two more people he knew from The Globe and grabbed his coat from the coat-check. He took the pocket watch out from his vest as he walked out of the Cafe. 

The evening seemed to have come quickly, faster than he'd expected. 

He made his way half a block on the strangely quiet street and checked his pocket watch again. Without paying attention in his direction, Baxter moved onto an even quieter, more residential part of the village. There were less gas lamps on this street. He lifted his head, finally, and realized his wrong turn.

When Baxter turned back, directly behind him in a blur of shadow was a person that launched a left punch to Baxter's face.

Baxter fell to the cobble stone street that was slicky with the moister of the sea and fog. Blood spilled from Baxter's nose, pooling in the cracks of the stones on the street.

The pain stung center in Baxter's face, so much so he couldn't make a noise. Within seconds of falling, the shadowy person then pounded Baxter's body even more fiercely. To his ribs, his back, his ribs again, his head. Blow after blow the shadowy person continued to grunt and lunge at Baxter's twisting body. 

The person grabbed Baxter by his coat lapel, the bleeding Baxter reached over and bit down on the person's hand, large as it was.

The person groaned in pain and launched yet another blow to the Baxter's face knocking him unconscious.

Then, just as fast as it started the shadow left in a hurry back into the shadows and the night fog leaving Baxter writhing in pain. Finally, like a dam breaking his was able to scream in pain. His roar echoed between the small houses on the wrong street he turned on alerting frighting neighbors who hurried to his aid.

****

Jacqueline encounters Verity at the cabin 

Later that night, under the cover of darkness, Jacqueline Gray returned to Goode Island where she had been staying since the end of the witch trials. She had been spending her days in the village at Churchill Green reconnecting with her estranged husband Johnathon and putting her shapeshifting abilities were put to good use. 

The Goode family cottage on the small satellite island had become her own home now that Mary and Filipe moved in with Fatima in the village. It was her refuge now, her safe haven. Her coven's den.

As she walked through the dense woods that encircled the cottage her mind floated back to her hopes for her marriage with Johnathon. Their connection for her was mostly one of opportunity. She could somehow manage to get him back in her good graces she could eventually return to the village as herself, but only with Johnathon. The village and the Lords themselves would never accept the witch that turned the town upside back into society without Johnathon by her side. They needed each other. 

And as these thoughts of Johnathon swam through her conniving mind, she thought too of Sebastian. The man she believed would have made her perfect partner. The vampire that stole her heart and eventually stomped all over it -- the reason her child died.

Her calm walk home quickly turned to a furious one. She could feel her heartbeat face as the night fog choked the woods all around her. Her dark dress against the white low clouds made her look as if she were in silhouette, a living breathing shadow portrait darting through the dense trees trying to make her way home. 

Jacqueline's concentration on her self-serving reunion with Johnathon and true wish to forget all about Sebastian suddenly vaporized in her mind when she came upon the cottage in the center of Goode Island. She stopped in her tracks. Her heart, however, did not stop it's racing beat. There was light within the home. The hearth had been burning. Chimney smoke filled the air above and mixed in with the fog. Through the front window, a shadow figure stirred in the home.

Jacqueline slowly made her way to the porch. One step after another until she got to the front door and in a quick motion, she yanked the door ajar to find the Mary Goode standing in the center of the front room with a cup of tea.

"What are you doing here?" Jacqueline asked, the alarm in her blood dropping significantly as she feared no other witch beside herself. 

Mary did not answer, she only looked at Jacqueline as if she'd seen a ghost.

"Mary? I asked you a question." Jacqueline pushed as she slowly made her way into the warming front room. "What are you doing here?"

Again -- Mary did not answer, in fact she seemed almost as if she refused to speak. Or could not speak. There was something about her energy, Jacqueline noted internally, that seemed -- different. Something was off about her one-time coven sister, her one-time partner in magic and then she saw it. 

The eyes. Mary's eyes were blue; this woman's eyes were green. Like Verity's.

With this realization, Jacqueline stopped in her tracks frozen with shock. Verity was a body, a body Jacqueline was forced to inhabit by the witch council to relieve Mary of the crime of witchcraft, she was burned at the stake to save Mary--- how was she now, standing before her as her own person sipping tea?!

"How?? How are you here? TELL ME! How is this possible, you burned!" Jacqueline recalled.

"Things are not always what they seem." Verity said, her voice exactly as Mary's. "You shouldn't be here either."

"I don't understand, I was in this body and they burned it, and when I came to, I was in this home back in my own body. The witch council --- they --- they said you were just a shell, a casing for me to portray as Mary. You can't be real." Jacqueline replied, practically talking to herself. 

"As I said, things are not always as they seem." Verity replied. "There was much more to what the council had in store for me than they led on. You should know a sorceress always has a double plan, and they certainly had for me." 

"No this is a mistake -- everyone in this village believes Mary's twin was the true witch and she paid with her life. It's the only way Mary could be saved -- you'll destroy everything if you are discovered." Jacqueline replied. 

"You're worrying too much." Verity answered as she sat to sip her tea. "I haven't returned to cause any harm to anyone you care for. But the council has given me free will, a life to live and I intend on pursuing it as they've designed." 

"Verity, listen to me, you cannot make yourself known in the village. Do you understand that? They saw you burn to ash, practically everyone in Welshport believes you're gone and forgotten. Should they find you -- they'll start all of that all over again. We'll all be in danger."

Verity could see Jacqueline's panic almost as if it were the very dress she was wearing. It was plain to see. She was new to the world but had learned quickly what it was to have human emotions, worry, fright, anxiety and stress. All of which were bleeding from Jacqueline's pours like water from a sieve. 

"That's not going to happen, I assure you." Verity replied.

"How can you be so sure?" 

"Because the only person who sees me as Verity is you. Everyone else has seen me as Mary." The Spencer twin explained.

"'Has' seen you? Verity have you already been in the village? Have you already gone to the Welshport and been seen?? Do you understand what the council will do to me if they discover this? They'll destroy me! They gave me strict instructions about you, and me, and --- my god, this changes all of that. You were never to be your own person!" 

Jacqueline turned and faced the wall. Her stomach was in knots. The Council had been very clear with her about Verity's existence and how secret it needed to be. No one on earth could know Mary magically created twin sister was not a real person in her own right, they had to believe she had been burned at the stake and was dead. If revealed Jacqueline too risked further sanctions by the witch council. She knew this to be true.... but it was yet another game.

Verity chuckled and sipped her tea. 

"This is not funny." Jacqueline replied, turning back to her new blonde roommate. "They'll have my head." 

"They won't." Verity answered quickly. "They won't."

"You've set me up -- THEY'VE SET Me up!"

"Jacqueline that's enough. Your paranoid. If the council truly had any intentions of punishing you further, they would have by now -- besides, you think I am here anyway? Do you think I was somehow more powerful than the witch council themselves? Do you think I would usurp their powers and just recreate myself from ash?"

Jacqueline stood in silence when the realizations suddenly flooded her panicked brain.

"This is what they wanted." Verity continued. "Eliza Goode conceived two daughters, one lived to be Mary, the other died before she could be fully formed. I wasn't just some made up being from their own imagination, Verity Spencer, had at one time in this unjust world had a purpose that nature, for better or worse, cut short. But the second chance has come."

As this settled into Jacqueline's mind, she wondered "What do you intend to do with this second chance?" 

Verity's face suddenly shined with glee. Her green eyes sparkled in the low glow of the Goode family's hearth. It was as if Jacqueline had asked where they cat put the canary. 

"I intend to live fully as the person who I should have been all this time. I'm starting soon. And you, sweet coven sister, will never tell a soul. Because if you should, then -- and only then -- will the full weight of the witch council come down on you. Reveal me, speak my name out loud to anyone, and prepare to cease to exist." 

"No -- you cannot ask me this! I have my own plans, my own redemption that I deserve. Knowing you're alive, know you're here and --- and --- and plotting something may risk everything for me. You have to leave Welshport. Find a place of your own and start over, don't do it here." Jacqueline begged.

Verity stood firm. She would not be moved. "No."

"Verity, listen -- " Jacqueline began before she was interrupted. 

"NO!"

Jacqueline said nothing more. 

"This place is where I was meant to have been born and this place is where I will finally find my destiny." Verity said.

Then before Jacqueline could say anything again, she Verity had one final statement that chilled her to her bones. 

"My destiny to live ---- as Mary." 

Jacqueline's eyes widened, she let out a small gasp of air when it all came together for her. Verity intended on taking over her twin sister's life, and Jacqueline was bound by the witch council from doing anything about it, locked in her own web of lies she could never ever expose Verity. 

The risk of doing this was sure destruction -- and Jacqueline herself had too much planned and too much to live for. 

****

Father & daughter meet face to face 

Later that evening, over at the Bellmore Beach home Evie was gifted by Rebecca, Danielle Holten took a few steps down a pebble stone path. There was a silence in the foggy air broken by the crashing waves just beyond the home's porch where the sea launched great white waves on the rocky beath. Aurora and Caspian had taken up refuge there, while Evie and Garbriel were away.

Danielle snuggled herself tightly in her wool coat and adjusted the small hat on her head just before she appeared in front of the beach house gate where she saw Caspian at his front door.

"Viktor." She said, stepping into the gated garden.

Caspian lifted his head from the door knob, one hand under a coat that had been draped over it, the other latched on to a key. The name and voice familiar yet alarming to hear out in the open, like a secret spoken loud.

He turned and saw the voice matched the face he had in his mind, his estranged daughter Danielle.

"Miss Holten, what are you doing here?" He asked, droplets of sweat glistening in the light of the gas lamp in front of the house. 

She sighed and stepped closer, Caspian seemed out of breath, a bit pale and in a rush.

"To be honest," she replied walking up the path to the front door, "I don't really know. I guess when I heard you and Mrs. Lord were no longer living together I just -- I wanted to see you. To see my father." 

Stepping down the three front steps, Caspian smirked, "Your father," He said, "that's still something hard to really put into perspective. Miss Holten --" he continued as she interrupted.

"Please, call me Danielle."

"-- Yes, Danielle. I hope you know that I do hope we can be friends, first. I don't know when or if I'll ever regain my full memory of being Viktor, but perhaps, knowing you as a friend first will bring things back slowly. I'm open to that if you are." 

She smiled. "Friends." She said, extending her gloved hand for a friendly shake. He chuckled and shook her hand. 

Once they touched, Caspian suddenly felt a stink to his right temple. He ripped his hand out of Danielle's grasp and made a deep bellied sound of pain that Danielle, a nurse, had never heard come from a man before. 

Caspian doubled over in pain, his headaches were coming now more frequent than before. 

"Are you alright?!" Danielle asked, coming to his and helping him back up to the front door. 

"I -- I .... It's hard to see." He said, his eyes blurring in the pain.

"Sit here." She said guiding him to a front step. "Should I get Aurora?" 

"She's not here." Caspian replied, lowering his head in his hands. "I was about to leave to -- uh -- meet her for dinner with Nikolas." 

Caspian clasped his hands behind his head hoping the pressure would help the sudden pain in his head. As he did this, the coat around his arm slipped slower down locking in place around his elbow. Danielle then noticed a slight stain on the cuff of his sleeve. She reached for his arm but Caspian pulled away.

"What is -- " She began but was quickly interrupted by Aurora and Nikolas arriving by Taxi.

Aurora rushed to the front steps of the beach house.

"What's happened?" She asked, reaching for Caspian's arms. He quickly regrouped, hiding the stain with this coat.

"He said he's having one of his headaches?" Danielle said, unsure if Aurora was aware of his condition.

"Headaches??" She asked.

"Let's take him inside." Nik said, as he winked at his new love Danielle. 

"Please, please everyone, its fine, really." Caspian said.

"We should get you to lay down, Caspian." Nik urged helping Caspian up and into the house.

The group shuffled around getting a sofa comfortable for Capsian who refused to be treated like a hospital patient. Aurora, huffed, and physically pushed him down on the sofa and covered his legs with a blanket. 

"A headache that knocks you to your feet doesn't feel like just nothing." Aurora said.

"How long have you been having these headaches?" Nikolas asked, examining Caspian's pupils as best he could. 

Caspian did not answer. 

"Caspian? Answer him." Aurora demanded.

Caspian sighed. "A while. Dr. Ward has been treating me, I didn't want anyone to worry." 

"I'll call Dr. Ward." Nik answered. "He'll give me an update." 

"Why haven't you told me this? This -- this feels serious. If you've been seeing Peter about these headaches you're worried too." Aurora said.

"I won't lie to you they're very intense. But Peter has been helping me and if I told you what was happening I worried you'd think -- well the worst." Caspian confessed.

Danielle re-entered the room with a glass of water "The worst?" she wondered out loud as she handed the water to her father.

Aurora sighed. "I'm sure you know Caspian's history. It probably better we don't speak it out loud."

"You mean..." Danielle too didn't want to say it out loud but the room was pregnant with the past. Caspian's past of demonic possession. It was the reason he couldn't remember being Viktor Holten, Danielle father, and why he called himself Caspian Casador, the name the monstruous demon gave him.

"Please let's just all take --- UGH!!" Caspian began before yet another tight pain to his right temple. He once again bowled over in pain, he came from behind his eyes and forced him to make fists with his left hand. It was tightly wound that his knuckles turned as white as snow. The other hand crushed the glass of water shattering it in his bare hand and cutting him.

Aurora gasped and quickly tried to hold him, but his rage with the headache shook her away. She fell back on the other side of the sofa. Danielle yelped as the glass crumbled before her eyes and she stepped back as Caspian's aggression became like a hot oil boiling over. 

"Is everyone alright???" Nik asked, rushing back into the room hearing Danielle's scream.

"WE'RE FINE!!" Caspian roared.

The room fell silent. Caspian, embarrassed by his own outburst excused himself to the bathroom to tend to the wound from the broken glass of water. 

"Caspian, let Danielle or Nikolas clean it for you." Aurora asked, her voice small and tender, almost fearing his reaction.

"I'LL DO IT!" he yelled back. 

Caspian disappeared into the bathroom leaving Nik, Danielle and Aurora frozen in silence.

"What's going on?" Danielle asked, she most of all still slightly in the dark to who and what Caspian really was before she's returned to Welshport.

"I -- I don't know." Aurora said in a worried tone.

"Dr. Ward told me on the phone that Caspian's been having these headaches for a while now. He's been treating him in secret because Caspian was worried how everyone would react thinking that it was happening again." Nik explained.

"It?" Danielle asked. "You're not saying what I think you're saying." She added.

Nik had filled in Danielle about Caspian's past, a past that she had slightly heard about here and there, but with Nik's explanation and a deeper and more frightening understanding had planted itself in her mind. It hurt her, knowing her father's history while she was away believing him dead. She could have saved him or helped him, she thought, but in truth, only the most powerful prayers on earth saved him. 

"Dr. Ward is certain these are just unresolved issues from his head injury at the coves all those months ago when the mob shoved him and he fell on the cove rocks. Nothing more. But Caspian -- well he worried, I think more than he should." Nik explained.

"But what do you think?" Aurora asked.

Nik shrugged "There's no reason to believe Caspian is reverting back to anything -- and I mean anything -- that we need to worry about. He's injured and needs to be treated. Head injuries are very delicate and difficult to remedy. They take time." 

"Of course." Danielle replied, realizing her worry was silly. Of course, Caspian wasn't returning to the darkness that over-took him all those years ago and for all intents and purposes killed her father Viktor, in spirit, if anything. "This is a medical condition." 

Aurora arched a brow "If Peter believes it, and the two of you think so, then... I'll believe it too." she replied unconvincingly.

In the bathroom, Caspian stared into his own reflection. He was sweating. Dark circles fell below his eyes making him look gaunt, skeletal and in truth -- devilish. He washed the cut on his hand from the glass in the sink. Blood swirled in the drain and Capsian watched as the crimson liquor circled and circled the stainless-steel drain.

The sweat at his brow returned. His pale skin could not be unnoticed. His breathing was like a panting panther searching for water. He could not feel his lips, he could not feel his heart beating faster and faster. It was like he was watching himself from outside his own body the body that Viktor once held and was taken over by the darkest monster from the depths of a place no human had ever been.

The lips he could not feel quivered with fear. The sweat dripped down his spine. There was more than just the bleeding hand he was worried about.

He rolled up his sleeve, the same sleeve that Danielle noticed the stain, to reveal a bloody bite mark left there by Baxter Murphy's bloodied mouth.

 Caspian Casador was not well.