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| 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, "insensÃvel" 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?
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| Celeste meets with Dr. Julian Pascal |
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.
"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.
"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?"
"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.
But Celeste only shrugged it off to Dr. Julian Pascal as a love affair that puzzled her.
"Please, Mrs. Lord, I wish you all the best, and to you too young Fabian. I hope you enjoy your visit with Uncle Johnny."
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| 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."
**
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| 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.
****
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| 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.
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| Rebecca & Asha discuss their plan |
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.
"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.
"I just think we're being too drastic." Asha replied, her voice softer and weaker in tone.
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."
"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.
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| 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.
