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| Rebecca searches the nurses medication room |
Everything in life is carefully guided by a watching eye; like the seagull that floats above the sails of a ship sending it slowly back to it's port of call.
Some say this is the universe's way of keeping order; by placing certain people in certain situations at certain times -- good or bad -- to see how they fair. Others point to a more religious and spiritual lock on all our destinies; a divine light above us that lays out our path with celestial hands beyond our gaze.
In truth, life and the moments that shape them are a series of events that we can sometimes control ourselves. Not by prayer or by positive thinking, but our actions. Rebecca Lockwood-Lord-Casador felt the need to take such action now against Danielle Holten, an innocent nurse caught in Rebecca’s spider web.
Rebecca saw Danielle as symbol of her husband Caspian's past one that Rebecca did not want him to reconnect with. To Rebecca, Caspian loved her and Viktor didn't. Should Danielle's hope to reignite her father Viktor's memories with her presence, the house of cards Rebecca built her marriage in would collapse.
It was this fear, one of erasure, abandonment, disownment that led Rebecca to where she was standing at this very moment: In the nurses medication room mixing doses of sleep aids for patients on Danielle's list of rounds.
The trays were each marked with a tag with a nurse’s name and her round number. Rebecca, slowly laced each of the glass cups meant for patients’ with a few drops of the Nightshade tincture, but suddenly she heard two women speaking in the hallway just outside. Rebecca recognized one voice as Danielle's. In her rush Rebecca dropped two extra drops into one of the cups -- two drops too many, then she hid inside of a broom closet.
Danielle and another nurse entered the room gossiping happily about silly things. One patient who couldn't get his nose to stop running. Another who'd been stung by a bee in the side of the eye. A woman who'd fallen off a horse and broken her leg. And Asha, Danielle's patient.
"She's going home today, but we're giving her one more bit of this herbal tea that is supposed to give her a bit more help with her memory." Danielle said to the other nurse, both too busy to notice any tampering with the small cups of medication.
"Dr. Hoffman has been hospitalized for such a long time, I can't understand why she still doesn't have her memories back." The other nurse said as the two began mixing their medical tonics.
"She will. Dr. Ward is very positive about it." Danielle replied.
"Has this herbal medication worked on anyone before?" The other nurse asked.
Danielle smirked and shrugged as she poured her sleeping aids in one of the small glasses, and then Asha's herbal medication in the other.
"To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea, but I hope she gets her memories back very, very soon."
Once the two nurses were gone, Rebecca exited her hidden place in the closet. Her heart was racing. Her mind filled with the hope that her plan worked, and the few extra drops would render her patients unconscious in an unprescribed way, enough too to show Danielle as incapable of doing her job properly, thus getting her fired.
Then she opened her hand. Her fingers thin and withered with age but still incredibly elegant and strong. The vial that held the nightshade was empty. She gasped realizing what she had done: in her haste, she had used too much in one of Danielle's patient cups.
"Dear god." She whispered as the terror of knowing she may have just poisoned someone to death.
****
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| New mayor, new constable |
The Globe photographer set up his large black camera with removing the lens cover and pulling out the long black accordion style neck focusing on the three men in front of him as District Attorney Eden Sydney quickly joined to swear both men in, filling in for Judge Banning.
The bulb flash went off lighting the three men in a bright white burst of light every two seconds. Between repeating the oath their offices, purple spots filled their eyes from the constant flashes of the man's camera.
"Is this how you saw yourself taking over for Timothy?" Eden asked Nathan, who's previous job was the late Mayor's closest aide.
"Not in the slightest." Nathan replied.
"Constable Ryan! CONSTBALE! OVER HERE!" A reporter shouted as the three town officials turned to him. "We hear Baxter Murphy may have given you a clue on who might have attacked him last night?"
"Baxter was attacked?" Nathan asked.
"What happened?" Eden added.
"Thank you all, there will be no questions." the mayor new aide said, as she rushed all the reporters out of the room.
"Well?" Nathan asked again. "What happened to Baxter?"
"He was leaving Gramercy Cafe last night and went down a darker street than he should have and was mugged." Justin replied.
Eden perked up "What is it?"
A new murder, especially one of the very divisive Mayor would have caused yet another chaotic scene in town. Nathan made the decision to end it -- getting Baxter to print a false obituary and paying off the medical examiner to say the death was of natural causes.
"Postmortem markings, I guess. Many things happen to us when we die, Constable Ryan, our bodies are after all part of nature at that point." Nathan explained.
Justin smiled, slightly not sure what to believe, but for now, took it as gospel truth.
"Then all I can say is I'm glad someone he was close to is the one that found him." Justin finally added.
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| Charlotte speaks with Mary |
At the Braga house, Mary sat in the nursery with little Caleb in a rocking chair reading him a story to lull the blond boy to sleep. As the words came out of his adopted mother's mouth, his little blue eyes slow blinked into a slumber and Mary eased him into his bassinet the was lined with light blue fabric so soft that it could have been made of clouds.
Mary stared down at her little boy, proud and lovingly but worried that the truth of his parentage would somehow escape the confines of the Braga household. Every day she worried about this, since the day she herself discovered the secret accidently while on trial for witchcraft.
This realization, that Asha had worked with Gregory to take Caleb from Aurora at birth and adopt him out would not fade from Mary's mind. How could it? She knew such a devastating secret that if revealed would change her family in painful ways.
"Are you alright?" A soft voice asked from Caleb's nursery doorway. Mary turned, recognizing the voice of her soon to be 16-year-old daughter Charlotte and nodded silently.
"I came to check on you two. Is he sleeping?" Charlotte whispered.
Mary nodded gain and put her index finger to her lips and motioned for Charlotte to follow her out and into her bedroom where they could speak. She closed Caleb's door and walked down the hall to her bedroom with Charlotte following close behind.
"You haven't said much since Filipe went out to sea." Charlotte noted, now in the room with her mother.
"I'm worried." Mary confessed. "I know that not being honest to Caleb's mother and father is cruel, but I also know it’s cruel to take him from the family he's known since he opened his eyes for the very first time. And I fear placing him back with Aurora -- as good a woman as she might be -- wouldn't be in Caleb's best interest."
"Because of Caspian." Charlotte said straight forward, Mary nodded again.
"I know he's not what he once was, I know that in my heart, but at the same time we're all still very haunted by it. How can I, in good conscience, take him out of the only home and family he's ever known and give him to people-- strangers really - knowing Caspian's very, very dark history. Charlotte, I just don't know what I should do."
"What you should do, is listen to Filipe." Charlotte answered. "I agree with him. We should keep the secret, keep Caleb safe with us. We have abilities and powers that we inherited that can keep him safe from all harm. Aurora doesn't have that. If, god forbid, Caspian should ever fall back into the control of such evil entities, she wouldn't be able to keep Caleb safe. We can. You and I."
Charlotte spoke like a woman, not like the girl she was. She had always been such an old soul, everyone knew this of her. She was a protector, more so than any of the other Lords, and Mary saw her young daughter growing up before her eyes into someone she could look to as a friend and counterpart.
"Your grandmother would be very proud." Mary said grabbing Charlotte's hand as the two sat on her bed.
"Rebecca?" Charlotte questioned, not seeing the connection to Mary who didn't have the best relationship with Rebecca.
Mary chuckled and shook her head "No, no," she reframed, "my mother. Eliza. You're a lot like her. She was someone I could always go to and she'd always have such a positive way to spin things for me. She helped me a lot in my worst days."
"I wish I had known her better." Charlotte said.
"I do too."
As the mother and daughter spoke in Mary's bedroom, a stealth figure in all black stood in the baby's nursery watching him sleep. She crept over, closer and closer, monitoring his breathing. Such a beautiful boy the person thought, such a gift to have a baby in one's life, the person thought again.
As Caleb slept like an angel in his cloud-soft bassinet, the person reached in and picked him up. The baby cooed and lifted his hands up touching his own face, still sleeping, dreaming perhaps. The person rocked Caleb in their arms. A feeling came over them like a salty ocean wave of love, powerful, unconditional love the baby in their arms and for just feeling it all together.
The person walked over to a vanity in the room to see themselves holding the baby. What a sight it was! It looked correct and fitting - a mother holding her child.
But this was a warped and a contorted view of reality. This was no mother, this was Verity Spencer standing in the mirror, the literal spitting image of her twin Mary.
Verity tilted her head slightly gazing at herself in the mirror as a mother to Caleb and smiled. She enjoyed what she saw. She almost glowed with glee at finally finding a fitting place for herself.
Caleb made a small whimper as he wiggled in arms, slowly coming out of his sleep.
"There, there,' Verity said softly as she kissed his forehead. "mummy's here."
Down the hall, Fatima Braga interrupted the mother and daughter meeting.
"Com licença," She said, excusing herself for the interruption.
"Come, in Fatima, please." Mary said with a smile.
"I just wanted to see if the menina still wanted to head downtown to the market with me. Filipe's ship comes in soon, and I wondered if she wanted to go with me to pick up things to make for dinner and to walk him home." Fatima asked.
Charotte shot up from the bed "Sure!" She answered, quickly sounding like the teenager she was.
"Bom, vamos-lá!" Fatima said, taking Charlotte's hand left hand as Mary reached for her right hand, forming a connection between all three women with Charlotte in the center her arms stretched out.
"Thank you for the chat." Mary said, kissing her daughter's cheek.
Charlotte smiled, Mary let go, and the two went off to the village. As they left the house, Fatima looped her arm in Charlotte's and held her close to her.
"I assume that talk was not about what you told Matthew, was it?" Fatima wondered, recalling how Charotte went against the rules Mary had set up about using their powers.
Charlotte sighed also remembering telling Matthew of the vision she had of Sebastian taking Evie and Gabriel to Scottland.
"No." She answered. "I'm taking your advice on that."
"Good girl, that's for the best." Fatima said as the two went further into the village.
Charlotte wasn't so sure.
Back in the Braga house Mary walked back down the hall towards Caleb's room. She suddenly started to feel a dizziness in her head. The hallway floor seemed to begin to bend and weave around her and she grabbed the hallway wall hoping to steady the movement her mind was showing.
The wall too suddenly began to feel as if they were melting, falling away but in truth they weren't. The dizziness persisted as Mary fought for balance and feared for Caleb who was only feet away in his own room.
There was a pressure in her head, one that got heavier and heavier as she got closer to Caleb's room and in a split second she pushed his door open and saw Verity standing there holding Caleb like a Madonna and child, the dimming afternoon light backlighting her twin almost in the most life like Da Vincian painting way.
Then -- the dizziness vanished as quickly as it came. Mary stood there, face to face with her twin sister, the one she thought was burned alive. The one she thought was only a shapeshifted version of Jacqueline created by the witch council as a cover to rid the Sisters of Highgrove of the trial.
"Jacqueline, what -- what are you doing???" Mary said, lunging for Caleb.
Verity lifted a hand and Mary froze in place.
"Jacqueline no longer inhabits the conscious behind these eyes." Verity said, her green eyes suddenly seeming brighter. Mary was unable to speak and move.
Verity placed the baby back in his bassinet and walked over to Mary and waved her hand over Mary's face unfreezing her mind only allowing them to speak telepathically. Silencing any potential scream that would escape Mary's lips.
"How? How is this happening?" Mary asked, the words only floating in Verity's mind.
"Fait and luck, that's all I can say." Verity said. "But it must mean something that I was able to return from the ashes as my own living breathing person."
"Where's Jacqueline?" Mary wondered
Verity shrugged. "Wherever she wants to be."
"Verity tell me what's going on. What are you doing here? What do you want?" Mary questioned.
Verity looked around the room. It was sweetly decorated for the little boy. Clearly, he lived in a happy, loving home unaware of the dangerous world he was born of and born into. Verity felt almost as if she too had been born this way, lost in a world of dangerous magic and ancestorial guilt of things she knew nothing of, mostly Eliza their mother. She wondered how Mary's life had been, as a child - a teen - a young woman - and now, a mother. Verity wanted to know those feelings and emotions. She wanted to go through the pain of motherhood, the ecstasy of romance and the devastation of death.
She wanted Mary's life - warts and all. To be fully human.
Mary's twin circled her as if inspecting her and was truly astonished that they'd looked so much alike. They were twins in the most identical way, aside from the difference in color of their eyes. Mary's blue, Verity's green.
"What do I want?" Verity said telepathically, asking herself the same question even though she knew the answer. "Look around you sister, this. This is what I want."
Mary's heart skipped a beat when she finally put two-and-two together.
And in that split second, Verity clapped her hands. A loud bang shocked Mary's mind and she fell to the floor and in another quick second, a white light burst in the room and Verity and Mary vanished into it. The force of Verity's power rocked the rocking chair in the corner ever so slightly, leaving it and the baby cooing in his crib alone and with the creaking wood of the Mary's rocking chair.
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| Celeste eavesdropping |
Later that afternoon, Celeste DeViana-Lord and a nanny walked down one of the several corridors of Tirymor House. The two had just come from putting Fabian down for a nap and were chit-chatting about how fast the young Lord heir was growing, when suddenly, their own conversation was broken by voices in the corner of the hallway.
An uncharacteristic light for that time of day peeked out from under the large oak door with caved horses into it, It was Jacob's office.
The strip of yellow light glowed like a beacon to Celeste's eyes begging her to go over and listen. Celeste grabbed the watch that was attached by a small silver chain on the lapel of the nanny's apron and looked at the time.
"Who would be here at this time of night?" She whispered.
The nanny shrugged.
Celeste shooed the nanny down the stairs and walked herself over to the door and put her ear up to it.
"How close? Solid?" Jacob asked her.
"Seemingly." She replied.
"What do you mean seemingly? Either they are they aren't Cora?" Jacob replied, revealing his meeting with his spy; his voice sharp and practically penetrating the wooden door to Celeste's ear.
"You--- you saw them?" A third voice asked, Celeste recognizing it as Aaron's.
While in the house, and eavesdropping on the lovers in their room, Coraline learned that indeed they had no plans for retribution over Jacob and his evil deeds.
Jacob, who had lowered his face down to his desk to sign the paycheck for Cora suddenly shot up and looked her in the eyes. "Married?"
"That's what I heard." Cora replied.
"Married." Jacob repeated. "My brother is going to marry his dead wife's look-a-like. Its almost something out of a Brontë novel." He said.
Jacob ripped the check out of large leather bound check book and slid it across the table to Coraline. She arched a brow and took it, folded it nicely and placed it inside a small pouch on the side of her dress that she then looped a button keeping the check safe.
In the reflection of the window, his office door opened and he saw his wife Celeste standing there with her hands on her hops.
"I have no real secrets from you, you didn't have to stand there listening." Jacob replied, spinning his chair around.
"Jacob, enough is enough. Christopher told you he wanted things to be better between the two of you and I believe him. Cora's story proves it too. He's finally moving on with his life and I think you should respect that." She said.
"What is it, huh? Why are you so keen on David's innocence, oh pardon me, Christopher's innocence?" He replied, sarcastically correcting himself into using Chris' new name.
Jacob stood up and walked around his desk to sit on the edge of it in front of his wife who was still in the office doorway. She wouldn't budge on her hope of the truce lasting but he knew better, the Lords were never going to be a happy family, not with their history. Jacob knew this for a fact, and he knew too that there may be a truce, a seize fire, but the war would never truly end. Not with their history.
"David and I are what we are." Jacob said, this time refusing to correct the name. "We're brothers with a very sorted history and that will never change Celeste. It's a fact of our relationship and as long as he is here, in this town, I'll keep my eye on him. That's that." Jacob replied.
Celeste rolled her eyes. She couldn't the idea of family fighting this way. She thought of her brother Johnathon and how much she wanted him to be healthy and free of the madness that took over his life. She could never treat him the way Jacob was treating Christopher.
Jacob shrugged smugly. "Another fact of life."
Celeste furrowed her brow.
"She said she walked in on two people being as close as two people could. They were making love. Did you imagine it in your mind? Those two beautiful people, in their bed, naked. I did. I imagine it as us. Skin to skin, lips to lips. It's been a while Celeste." He said.
This was a transaction ... one between two people who were in a relationship like a business, power and convenience rather than true passion and affection. This was the connection of two people during a transaction - and this is how they wanted it.
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| Chaos unleashed at the hospital |
Thud. Thud. Thud. It pounded. She reached for her chest, as if her heart were about to leap from behind her ribcage and into her hand. She went into a secret pocket of her dress... and removed the glass vial of empty nightshade extract; a vial she'd take with her.
Then, as if in slow motion, as if time was literally creeping to a halt: Chaos.
Several of Danielle's patients began to fall into a deep sleep, almost in unison. Nurses slapped their faces, waking them for a second, but only for a groggy few seconds. There were six patients on that floor, all Danielle's who were unable to speak, move and fell into their nightshade laced sleep.
Rebecca stood at the hospital room door, white as a ghost as the other nurses and Dr. Ward stepped away from Asha's bed. There she was, Dr. Asha Hoffman, just hours away from being released from the hospital after so many months recuperating from a terrible accident in a fire: Dead.
Rebecca gasped realizing which of Danielle's patients received the accidental overdose. She slowly backed away, but not before she met the gaze of the devastated Dr. Peter Ward.
Rebecca and Nik slowly passed each other, their eyes met, he then dashed to the commotion at Asha's bedside.
Then, the elevator doors opened on the second floor. A woman came in and smiled. Rebecca looked out of the elevator's and into the hall in front of her and an idea popped into her mind. She leaped out of the elevator and dashed down the hall out of sight.
