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| Lucas & Matthew in Village Park |
A mid-summer cool breeze filtered through the trees of Village Park where Matthew and Lucas were walking to catch a cab in town up to Tirymor House. There they hoped to find the woman of Matthew's visions, the woman he had been dreaming about and hoping he'd find after all these months lost at sea. The hope was that she, this woman that the fisherman they encountered on the docks would unlock everything his mind was blocking.
As the two made their way through the park and up a winding cobble-stone street toward the center of town the street narrowed a bit at a curve when it came to the edge of a bluff that over-looked the ocean.
Lucas was making small talk as Matthew suddenly began to get lost in the sound of the ocean hitting the seawall below.
Matthew looked out onto the wild sea and began to hear something in the distance beyond the waves. It became more and more intense, the sound. Matthew's deep brown eyes became transfixed over the sea.
It was whales. They were calling him; he could feel it. He could tell that their sonar, their musical tones, were for him. He couldn't understand why he was hearing it, why it was coming to him so clearly into his mind.
What were they trying to tell him? Was it a warning?
"What is it?" Lucas asked as his friend stopped dead in his tracks on the road watching the sea.
"Do you hear that?" Matthew asked.
Lucas strained to hear. "The ocean?"
"No. The whales. Do you hear the whales?"
Lucas stepped close to the sea wall to listen. He couldn't hear them, he couldn't even see whales out on the ocean with their trademark buffs of air blasting water through their spiracles like steamships out on the wild blue water.
The sea was pulling and crashing back onto the rocks below the wall but there were no whales in sight.
"I don't hear anything Winter." Lucas said using the nickname he had given Matthew before they knew his real name. "Just the sea." He added.
"I can." Matthew replied assertively. "They're trying to warm me about something. They're trying to tell me something isn't right, there's no way they would I would be able to hear them this way and it not mean something. We should go back."
"Back? To the Inn?" Lucas asked. "You don't want to see the woman at this ... this Tirymor House? She could be the one that unlocks everything Winter, she could be the one that helps you."
"I just feels...I have to go back. We have to go back. Something doesn't feel right." Matthew said as the calls from the sea got louder and louder in his hear.
“But we came all this way now we have a lead on who might be the woman in your dreams. It just fell into our lap and you want to go back to the inn?” Lucas again said sounding frustrated.
Matthew began to shake, he put his hands over his ears as the waves and whales got louder and louder, the sensation of panic got stronger and stronger. Then, a frightening and murderous sound of a wolf howling in the distance echoed through Village Park where Lucas and Matthew were standing. Lucas, this time, heard it too.
A chill ran up Lucas' spine and he too began to feel something was wrong. There was suddenly an odd quiet that fell over them and they began to feel as if they were being stalked — watched from a hidden blind.
“This isn’t right, something isn’t right.” Matthew said.
"Ok, alright ok. It’s ok. You’re ok. Let's go back." Lucas agreed.
Matthew quickly turned back from the sea and the two decided to head back to the Inn they were staying at on the other side of Village Park.
Finding Evie would have to wait another day.
Matthew's emotions and whole body were reconnecting to his native land like a bolt of lightning to a metal spire. The Welshport sea and the trees and everything around him were sending him warning signals loud and clear, especially through his kindred spirits deep in the ocean.
Something was not right, and all of Matthew’s suppressed powers that connected him to this environment were speaking to their native son loud but the message and warning were still unclear.
****
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| Rebecca & Caspian discuss his search |
At Tirymor House, under the sparkling lights of several buzzing chandeliers in what the family called The Gold Room, Caspian Casador sat reading the afternoon paper. He searched the bylines of The Welshport Globe for any kind of recognizable name in the town's news that would give him a clue to his life before he was Capsian Casador.
He knew deep down in his bones that the name everyone knew him by was not his, this was the name the creature that lived inside of him called itself before being expelled back to the darkness and back to the underworld never to be seen from again.
Hopefully.
Entering in the glittering Gold drawing room, Rebecca saw her new husband painstakingly searching the paper for something, anything, that would give him the feeling he was on the right track. This made her nervous. What, if anything, would he find and when found how would it change their relationship?
She worried that everything she had fought for to finally be with Caspian and take back her family's company with his help would slip through her fingers should he find his old life. Then there was the Aurora factor.
Caspian and Aurora’s encounter the evening Evie returned made Rebecca nervous. To Rebecca, Aurora’s youth and beauty was no match for her and that threat could unravel all she worked for. Rebecca had clawed her way out of Churchill Green and back into power --- but at a fragile grasp.
The complex situation burned inside of Rebecca’s mind daily and now she could tell her new husband was intent of finding out who he was before his date with the devil -- and possibly more if Aurora were in the mix.
"You're very involved in that paper." She said, sitting beside him on the cream-colored sofa.
He looked up from the paper and kissed her wife's cheek. "Very." he said.
"Anything interesting in the news?"
"Nothing yet." He replied gazing back into the black and white smudged Globe.
"Caspian, look at me." She replied as he respectfully put down the paper to look at Rebecca. "I know what you're doing." She said to him.
He sighed. "Rebecca, listen... " he began before she interrupted.
"There is nothing in that paper or out in that world that matters to who you are now, do you understand me? What happened, happened and it's over. You've been given a rare gift that almost no one ever gets-- a fresh start. Why go searching for things that may hurt the new life you've worked so hard for?"
"Why would you think it would hurt me?" he asked as he carefully folded the newspaper his wife owned over his crossed legs. "Finding out where I came from and who I was before would just add to our lives now. Don't you want to know? Don't you wonder who you're really married to?"
"I know who you are now, that is the man I married. That's what matters. And how do you know it wont hurt us finding that information, do you really want to open that can of worms?" She countered.
"I think I have the right to find out. Rebecca there was someone in this mind before I was Caspian. I don't know where exactly I came from or who I was. What if I had family out there -- children?" He asked.
She pursed her lips at the thought of that -- a family that didn't include her. He quickly noticed her bristle at the idea.
"Look, no matter what I find it won't change how I feel about you. We're in this together, I promise you that. I've given myself to you and to our cause. I wouldn't have married you I truly didn't want to. You understand, don't you? What would you do in my situation?"
"I would thank the lord above that I had someone who cared enough for me to keep me away from any danger." She replied. "We don't know what you'll find Caspian, and if you will be safe knowing more. For all we know you stepped into the devil's eye because....." she paused.
"Because what?"
"Darling, what happened to you doesn't just happen to any regular person." She said.
"What do you mean?" He wondered, a bit perturbed at her insinuation.
To Rebecca the notion that whomever Caspian was in the past was simply an innocent person who had fallen into the trappings of something nefarious and evil was not built in reality. She understood the world of the supernatural much differently than anyone in Welshport. Putting it simply for Caspian to understand would cause an almost certain rift. In truth, he knew where she was going.
"I would have to upset you." She said softly.
"You can be honest with me."
She braced herself -- "Something in your past must have brought on the darkness, Caspian. There is a reason why you were chosen. I don't know that reason. Only that monster the took your body over knows why it was summoned on earth and why you were chosen to be it's host. I think, for all of our sakes, you leave it be. Let the past be the past as we've both chosen to move on with our lives -- together."
"I can't accept that." Caspian replied. "I think I deserve to know who I was before all of this even if that means knowing something horrible about myself. That was then, this is now. I am different. What happened to me made me different, I'm free of that monster and I'm free of whatever horrible things I may or may not have done. But I should be able to know these things.'
"It would be a mistake." Rebecca said again, fighting off Caspian's desires for truth.
"What are you afraid will happen? That for whatever reason I discover who I was will bring on the monster again? It wont happen, Rebecca, I can fight him off this time. We have Father Ryan; he can help us. Maybe I can enlist him to help me, help us."
"Caspian, it will be a mistake!" Rebecca shot back again, this time taking a stand and looking down on Caspian who was still seated on the cream-colored sofa.
Caspian's furrowed his brow. He took a breath, flipped the newspaper over and onto the cushion Rebecca was sitting on and stood up to her. They're eyes meeting, hers gazing up to his tall frame, his down to her tiny body.
"This is something I have to do. I need you to support me. Someone in this town knows who I was, someone. Anyone. They know. I might have a family somewhere." He repeated.
"Like a wife." Rebecca replied without skipping a beat.
And there it was. Her true fear. Not that he was somehow revert to his demonic state should he discover who he was or what he was before they met, but that there was someone else. Someone he once loved that he may love again. It was a situation that felt repetitive, something Rebecca fought off when the evil side of Caspian was obsessed with the younger more beautiful Aurora.
"No." he said softly realizing her hurt. "There won't be a wife."
"And how do you know? Because if there were Caspian, if there were a wife out there our whole marriage would be invalid. We'd be done." She added.
"I would knot that. I would for sure know that I had another wife, that's not what I meant by family." He said.
Rebecca felt confused. "Then? What did you mean?" She asked.
"Siblings. Cousins...." He paused then repeated. "Children."
Rebecca took a breath. It didn't connect for her. How could he wonder if he had children out in the world but no wife. Was he just softening the blow?
"I need you to do me one thing before you do any kind of searching." She requested.
He lifted his chin and gulped "Ok."
"If you peruse this, if you truly, truly need to know the truth and are unsatisfied just beginning anew with me, then I need you to promise me that if there is someone else, a wife, you'll leave her and remarry me to validate our love."
Caspian cocked his head in thought, but it didn't take him even a second to reply "Of course."
"Of course?" She questioned.
"I love you now. That is who I have chosen now, the search I need to make is only to meet the desires of my psyche. Who was I? Where did I come from? Do I have a family or was I here alone? That's all I want to know, but if there is someone out there not knowing I am alive as a different person, she will lose to you. I promise you that."
Like signing in blood, Caspian gave himself again to Rebecca. A promise she would never ever let him renege on.
She smiled grateful and pulled him in for a kiss and hug under the sparkling chandeliers of The Gold room.
Rebecca Lockwood-Lord-Casador always got what she wanted.
****
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| An Awkward Lord family moment |
In a separate part of the mansion in a half circle shaped room sitting room in Jacob & Celeste's apartments a warm glow seeped in from the windows and the beautiful panoramic views of green forest all around the house. Jacob, Celeste, Fabian and Gabriel were together playing like a gleeful picturesque family.
As the foursome played and chatted together like a happy family, Evie walked in with her mother Aurora; both in a flurry of fabrics from their dresses as they had been frantically looking for little Gabriel upstairs.
Evie quickly rushed over to her boy and scooped him up off the floor where he was playing with blocks with Celeste and Fabian.
The sudden dash of Evie's body startled 4-year-old Fabian who hopped into his father's lap.
Evie stepped away holding Gabriel in her arms kissing his pink cheeks.
"Now, now, calm yourself. You’ll kiss his cheeks raw." Jacob said coldly.
"Evie! How are you feeling?" Celeste asked as she got up from the floor holding blocks in her hands.
"Don't talk to her." Aurora snarled.
"This is our house, Aurora, if you'd like to order people around you should get back to Constable Reins' flat where you have more authority." Jacob replied.
Aurora rolled her eyes.
"Evie? How are you?" Celeste asked again, hoping to repair their once solid friendship.
"I needed rest, but I'm better." Evie said.
"You should be resting now, we could call Dr. Ward." Celeste offered.
"No more doctors! Especially none we don't trust." Aurora said.
Jacob let out a laugh "Dr. Ward is a doctor you don't trust? How does that even make sense to you? He's the one that's saved your own Nikolas' career over there at Hope Hospital. Nikolas is to blame for what happened to Evangeline, not Dr. Ward."
Aurora's eyes narrowed at Jacob for bringing up Nik who had been the doctor who prescribed the medication that Jacqueline used on Evie to render her asleep-- virtually dead. The mother of the Jordan siblings slowly walked over to Jacob and sneered at him with contempt. She knew he was trying to bring out the worst in her but she kept her composure.
"Maybe what I meant was no more doctor's trusted by you. We all know how much money you give Welshport Hope, and how easy it is for someone to fall into your clutches and get carted off to a mental hospital. You've done it three times now." Aurora reminded him.
Jacob cleared his throat "All within reason." He said with a sly grin as Aurora scoffed.
"Enough, that's enough." Celeste chimed in. "Evie whatever you need, anything, please let us know and we can help you. I promise you that."
"Help me?" Evie replied. "Your husband is the person that got me taken away from my son. You both have made it so I am no longer his legal guardian; ‘for his own safety’ you said. I am his mother; I would never put him in danger."
Celeste sighed "Evie you know that when everything happened, and you were taken away, we had to make sure Gabriel was safe within the family."
Evie laughed "But the two of you were the reason for him being unsafe in the first place?!"
"It doesn't matter now." Jacob replied. "Gabriel is under our care and control...under the law. Plain and simple."
Aurora scoffed again “Control you say? Yes—Along with all the assets he is set to inherit one day.”
“An added bonus for taking care of kin, I’d say.” Jacob shrugged smugly.
"You piece of sh..." Evie began before Aurora stopped her.
"You both know this is wrong."
Celeste looked at Jacob and wasn't sure how to respond anymore. She knew too that they had purposefully done this to Evie to get more of the family fortune under their control. Evie was locked away and then presumed dead, her share of the fortune she inherited through her marriage to Sebastian now went to Gabriel, the little boy was one of the wealthiest children on the East Coast and being his guardians made Jacob and Celeste even that more powerful within their own company.
The plot was set and forged for monetary matters and the greed was oozing out of Jacob's eyes. For her part Celeste only wanted to guarantee her safety and keep her own son out of Jacob's murderous and hands.
Evie stepped closer to Celeste who was clutching on to Fabian's hand for dear life. She felt horrible for her part of Evie's struggles but nevertheless knew she had to do it. Feeling the unease in the room, Fabian squirmed out of his mother's hands and ran off into the hallway. Little Gabriel began to cry and reached for Celeste.
It killed Evie but she could not bare to hear the baby cry, the baby she loved so much. The baby who was feeling insecure and needed to be held by the woman who had been taking care of him for months.
Evie teared up but did what the baby wanted to help ease his stress: she handed him to Celeste despite Aurora's objections.
"You've asked what I needed from you in a matter of helping me. I need you to go to court and relinquish your guardianship over my son back to me. That is what I need, that is what will help me. If you were ever my friend, Celeste, you'll do this." Evie said with a solid voice, no quivering, no shaking.
"Evie, I..." Celeste began before Evie interrupted.
"Don't say anything. Just do it. Do the right thing." Evie added before grabbing her baby's little hand and kissing it then looking over at her mother and asking her to leave with her, allowing little Gabriel to stay.
In the hallway, away from Jacob and Celeste's ears, Aurora pulled Evie aside.
"Why would you do that? Why did you hand over your child to her?"
"Well, for starters, they're right. Legally I'd be kidnapping him as insane as it sounds, and Celeste has to see that I'm not wrong on this. She has to make the decision and reverse what they've done by the terms of the law and bring him back to me. If I just too my baby now, it would make matters so much worse. Jacob's as dense as stone, so it has to be Celeste."
"Surely you don't trust her or believe she'll grow a conscious after everything that has happened, do you?" Aurora asked.
Evie took a deep sigh and shrugged. "If our friendship ever meant anything to her, I can only hope. But god only knows what they do to me if they knew the full truth of how I got in that grave. I’d never see outside Churchill Green again."
“The full truth? What do you mean?” Her mother wondered.
Evie wasn’t sure how to explain. How could she tell her mother that a witch obsessed with Sebastian shape-shifted into the nurse that drugged her to sleep and put a spell on her to make her look dead? No one could know the full truth, not even people she trusted.
For now Evie felt no threat from Jacqueline who was, Evie hoped, on the run or on a futile search for Sebastian, Evie made sure he was hidden away where no one would find. Not even Jacqueline with all her powers would be able to.
No one could know the truth — Evie knew the danger of revealing the truth to the world of the witch Jacqueline. How would anyone believe her? Her focus would be on rehabilitating herself in the eyes of the court to get her son back legally.
“It doesn’t matter now. I’m going to just focus on my son and I reuniting once and for all.” Evie said.
Aurora sighed “Is this about what Dr. Ward heard you say about who saved you that night?”
Evie’s breath shallowed she was an aware Aurora knew. “Partly.” Evie said her body physically recoiling at the topic of the night she was frees from a grave.
"We'll talk to someone.” Aurora replied noting that Evie’s discomfort. “We'll make sure we have our own legal way out of this darling, no grandchild of mine is going to be raised with those two hydras. Once we get Gabriel back, we'll destroy them once and for all for everything they have done. Every last one of them. "
Evie smiled. She grabbed her mother’s hand and agreed. Then the two Jordan women rushed off to find their own lawyer.
****
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| Jacqueline & Johnathon at the Siren’s Call Pub |
That evening as the sea air and fog fell over the lower end of Welshport like a blanket of salty clouds, the busiest pub in town, The Siren's Call, catered to a rowdy group of fishermen and sailors that were on shore leave from long trips out to sea.
Over in a corner booth, Jacqueline Gray awaited her date for the night, the man she had recently met right there in the very same pub in the very same booth.
She sipped on a glass of white wine as the small white candle in it's red glass container flickered in her dark eyes. She felt nervous awaiting her date: Johnathon DeViana. The night they made love, when she touched his skin and her body became one with his, she could see into his mind. She saw his memories, his likes and dislikes, his hopes, his dreams and his guilty conscious.
Jacqueline saw what he did to the true man she loved, Sebastian, in this vision. She saw Johnathon take him and lock him away in some sort of vault or tomb where he could not be found. Her anger burned deep in her bones for what he had done, but another matter was even more of a priority: Stopping Evie from outing her for what she did.
Jacqueline feared that now that Evie was free of her own coffin and free from being buried alive in thanks to Jacqueline herself, she would now be on Evie's target list and be outed for what she had done.
A witch in the crosshairs was a dangerous place to be.
Only one person could save her from anything Evie might do to her if this were to happen, and that person had just walked into the Siren's Call Pub and saw Jacqueline flash a bright white smile his way.
Johnathon ordered a beer on tap at the bar and walked over to the booth. He smiled and the gorgeous witch and kissed her hand.
"I'm so happy to have heard from you. When I received your note to meet you tonight, I couldn't wait for the time to come. I've been thinking about you since the night we were together." He told her.
She smiled convincingly but inside wanted to rip his throat out for what he did to Sebastian.
"I couldn't stop thinking about you too." She replied, partly true.
"You left the house so abruptly that I thought I'd done something wrong." he recalled.
Jacqueline gulped when she remembered she fleed Tirymor when her victim Evie arrived.
"NO! No, not at all." She lied. "I felt that maybe I shouldn't have been around for what clearly was a very dramatic family only type of event."
He smiled.
"I see. Then, perhaps we could," Johnathon began before the bar-maid dropped his beer on the table. "perhaps we could?" He said, trying to be discrete while the maid cleaned the table.
As the maid left, Jacqueline finished his thought "Make love again?" She grinned.
He smiled back.
"I think we can make something happen soon, yes. I think I'd love that." She added.
"What was your favorite part?" He asked as her stomach tightened in disgust.
"We should talk about that some other time; I asked you here to get to know you better." Jacqueline replied.
"Of course, please forgive me, it's just that I don't think I've ever found anyone more attractive in my whole life and I feel like perhaps you like me too." Johnathon replied, his voice school-boy shy.
"I do like you." She replied in a half truth.
"That's good. That's good." He said smiling. "What did you want to talk about? What about me did you want to know?"
Her mouth wanted to scream out "WHERE DID YOU PUT SEBASTIAN!" but it wouldn't matter if she did. Evie and Sebastian chose an entirely different place to hid him away forever. Jacqueline would never know unless Evie told her. And Evie would never do it.
Jacqueline's plan had to be foolproof. She desperately needed security and safety from what might occur if she were discovered. She needed Johnathon's cover.
She slowly reached over across to table and took Johnathon's hand and made circles with her fingers lightly in the palm of his hand. he could feel the tickling of her fingers tips. It sent tingles all through his body.
He could feel a rush of coldness rise from his feet and into his legs and through his stomach and into his lungs and up to his head. Jacqueline then stopped ticking the palm of his hand as the cold sensation went up her own body linking the two of them and finally when their eyes locked on each other she yanked his hand and held it tightly.
Johnathon was fully in a trans, spellbound and locked into Jacqueline's control.
She began to whisper to him over and over again and her worlds came from her mouth like breath on an ice-cold morning, the buffs of hair followed an invisible path into Johnathon's locked mind where he could hear her say:
"This is what you want. I am who you want. This is what you want. I am who you want. This is what you want. I am who you want. This is what you want. I am who you want."
Johnathon repeated softly out loud, their four eyes still locked in eachother's gaze
"This is what I want. She is who I want. This is what I want....."
"Together," Jacqueline said in a low voice, "we will be together. The two of us. You and I."
"Together. We will be together. You and I." Johnathon repeated.
"Married." She said.
"Married." He agreed.
"Speak after I speak so that everyone in your family will know that I am the woman you will marry and protect and save from all who wish to harm me, do you understand?" Jacqueline asked as she tightened her old on Johnathon's hand.
"You are who I want to marry, and I will protect you from all who wish to harm you. I understand."
"Everything alright here?" The bar-maid asked searching for empty glasses to take back. Coming up on the strange interaction between Jacqueline and Johnathon gave her a pause.
This outside voice from the maid released Johnathon from the Jacqueline's hypnotic spell.
"Everything is fine! In fact I'd like to buy some Champaign." He said standing up. "Champaign for the whole bar!!!!" Johnathon screeched.
"For the whole bar?" the maid asked.
Jacqueline gulped.
"YES!" Johnathon told her. "FRIENDS!! Listen! I've just become engaged to this beautiful woman sitting here with me. No dollar is too much, Champaign! Champaign for everyone!"
Jacqueline's eyes widened. It had worked. Johnathon had been successfully hypnotized into marry her and she would get his protection under his newfound Lord last name. No one could hurt her; Evie wouldn't dare.
The patrons of the bar all called out with glee and patted Johnthon on the back for nabbing such a pretty "wench", as sailors would say. The ladies in the room quickly rushed over and to see her ring, and magically, one appeared thanks to Jacqueline's quick thinking and powerful mind.
"It's so big!" One lady said.
"WHAT A DIAMOND!" Another replied.
Jacqueline was half-way there. If her spell kept, she'd be up in Tirymor House at any time as one of the family protected from harm and when that happened, she could then begin her true search for the man she truly loved. Sebastian---and after when Sebastian was finally found she'd end it with Johnathon.
She looked at him happily shaking hands with everyone in the bar as Champaign flutes were filled and overflowing on to the ground and began a ticking clock in her head. He'd soon be dead.
She'd marry him. Keep herself safe. Find Sebastian. Then kill Johnathon for taking him away from her in the first place. And when all was said and done, she'd handle Evie.
She stood up and Johnathon pulled her into a happy hug and whispered to herself as the ring on her finger sparkled under the low lights "one step at a time... one step... at a time."
****
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| Nik gives Asha the third degree |
In a small home off a main street in the village, Nikolas Jordan sipped from a small cup of tea letting his thoughts take over his mind. Thoughts of everything that had happened to him and his family over the last few months: his guilt over how his sister's supposed death transpired and how he felt the guilt and responsibility for how it even got to the point of an accidental overdose of medication he prescribed.
But most of all there was something on his mind that was even worse... it had been bothering him day and night and had been constantly picking his brain; Nik had been sitting on a secret that he knew would blow up so many people's lives -- including his own -- if it were revealed.
The woman Nik loved, Asha Hoffman, was somehow mixed up in another one of his's family's tragedies: the death of the child Nik's mother Aurora gave birth to a few months back.
He had overheard Asha and Gregory Reins discussing something in unclear terms regarding Aurora's child, a child Asha delivered and declared dead on the night of its birth. But the conversation Nik overheard between Asha and Gregory made the events of that night murkier.
Nik sat there on the sofa going over what he knew: he knew Aurora gave birth to a girl that passed away at birth, but what he overheard was the Aurora gave birth to a boy that Asha and Gregory took from Aurora---where they took the child to was unclear-- and lied to his mother, and everyone, about the baby not surviving.
The matter of it all was that Asha was once again responsible for someone in Nik's life suffering.
Just as Nik was running out of tea, Asha walked in from her late shift at the hospital.
"Hi." She said entering the home with a giant smile on her face. "You're still up."
"I am, yeah, just having some tea. I guess I should have had a little less. Not feeling ready to sleep yet and I have to get to the hospital pretty early." Nik replied.
Asha leaned over the arm of the gray sofa and kissed Nik on the lips, but the kiss felt cold.
"Are you alright?" She asked, sensing his hard body language.
Nik stood up. "Um, just feeling a little off lately. Somethings been on my mind for a while now and it's been eating away at me." He said.
"Nik, if this is about Evie, we've talked about it. It wasn't your fault. That nurse, she gave Evie too much of what you prescribed, you had no idea any of that would happen. Evie doesn't blame you." Asha replied.
Nik could see Asha had no idea there was so much more on his mind than that, her secret. Her lies. They were killing him.
He smirked unconvincingly back. "Yeah." He said.
Asha furrowed her brow. "There's more?" She asked.
"More?"
"Nik, I can tell there's something else that's bothering you besides Evie. What is it? Did something happen at the hospital?" She asked.
Nik stood there and looked at the beautiful Asha. She was so sincere in her love and her care for him but on the other side of it she had a way of always finding herself in situations where she'd have to do something wrong and bury herself in more secrets and lies. She promised him after the first time he discovered her lies that it would be the last time. This again was another lie. There they were in the face of a hurricane of secrets.
He took a beat to answer her and then said "Sort of yes."
"What happened at work?"
He decided to test her "Its my mother actually. You know she has been feeling rather low in the last few months after what happened with Evie and of course losing her son." Nik said.
Asha gulped. "You mean daughter." Asha replied, trying to keep the lie going that Aurora gave birth to a girl when in fact she gave birth to a boy, a boy she and Gregory secretly adopted out to Mary and Filipe.
Nik lifted a brow "Right, yes, daughter. I'm struggling to find ways to help her. What would you do?"
"All I can say is just be there for her, and let her know that you'll do anything to hep her ger through this really difficult time. She knows you'll be there for the really hard transition. That's all you can really do." Asha explained.
"But what if there's more to it? What if there's more to what happened the night she gave birth. You were there, you delivered the baby, did you notice anything that would trigger her depression? You've seen her, you've been around her. Her depression must be stemming from more than just what happened with Evie. I think its about that night, that night she gave birth. What do you think?" He said, pushing her into the bad memories of what she did.
Asha started to feel uneasy. She didn't want to talk about that night. She knew that if she had to add more to the story it would be more to cover up in the long run. Nik's questioning made her feel as if there was more to it than just a son wanting to know more details on his half-sibling's tragic demise.
"No, I can't say that I can add anything to that horrible night. I mean, your mother wasn't conscious when the baby was born, so I didn't notice anything different about her demeanor before she went into labor. But it's natural for a mother to feel some depression on such a traumatic event. Maybe she can seek some help at Churchill Green." Asha said, neglecting to note that Gregory had drugged Aurora to sleep with medication Asha had given him.
"See, that's the thing, Ash, isn't it odd that woman giving birth would just fall asleep or not be awake during birth without being given something? I know that I'm a new doctor and I'm still learning but I just have never ever heard that before. You've been in the medical field for a long time first as a nurse, doesn't that seem strange to you? And then how fast Reigns decided in cremation. I mean my mother says she didn't even get to see the little girl. That's odd too." Nik asked again prodding.
Asha began to feel nervous and unsure of where his questions were leading but her instincts clearly told her that he knew something or suspected something and that she was in his crosshairs for some reason.
"You know, I don't think I should talk about my patient with you. Her privacy in that moment of her life should be something that she talks about with you as her son, not me as her doctor." Asha replied deflecting.
"Right, but I'm a doctor too and you're also my girlfriend who was there the night my half-sibling was born; I feel like maybe you know more than you're saying. Why couldn't we all sit down and talk together so you can fill in some blanks." Nik asked.
Asha gulped "That's not appropriate." She answered.
"Its not?" Nik asked, as Asha shook her head no. "I think it very much is appropriate Asha. It was just you and Gregory there and I think giving us more information about that night would help us all. Evie too. We would really appreciate it."
"I would have to speak with your mother first, as her doctor." Asha said again attempting to delay anything so that she could tell Gregory.
"We could do it tomorrow. All we have to do is go over to Gregory's." Nik said.
"NO!" Asha shouted to Nik's surprise. "I'm sorry. Look, Nikolas, we both know there are rules about discussing things about our patients outside of the hospital and I regret not getting Aurora to the hospital that night, but we didn't have time, the baby came very quickly. That being said I can't go along with asking Aurora anything in front of you or Evie or Gregory. It has to be on her terms. It's ... its the appropriate thing to do."
Nik pursed his lips, he could tell she was hiding something. Her face sold the story but at a cheap price. He already the truth, at least a very vague version of it the truth, and he would do everything in his power to make sure she and Gregory were forced to tell everyone what they did with the baby and why.
"Hmmm... You're probably right." Nik said, unconvincingly. "We'll see what my mother decides to do when she's ready."
Asha smiled and walked over to Nik who was now standing across from her. She kissed him on the cheek and excused herself to get ready for bed. As she entered into her bedroom a wave of panic washed over her.
Nik was pushing for information. He knew, she could tell he knew and wanted to know more. She had to stop him from asking Aurora anything and opening the door back into the night, a night she regrated and wanted to forget.
She had to stop him from doing anything drastic and dangerous for her own good. She had to stop him before it was too late.
She was on the brink of losing him she could taste it. She had to convince Gregory to come clean, they both had to. It was the only choice -- she thought of the saying The truth will set you free. And this rang true. She was trapped and only telling the truth could save her now.
