#241 "Broken Glass Onion" GUASTI COSE
#241 "Broken Glass Onion"
Season Six | Episode Fifteen
March 31, 2008


Written by Tom King of Wonderland
For the 2008 Webseries Writer Swap Project


HOLDEN HOME

Matt Holden is in the backyard, taking one long, last drag from his cigarette before flicking it aside. He figures his little smoke break should have provided ample time for the drug he slipped in his father's coffee to have taken effect.

He makes his way back inside to the living room and can't help but keep a sly grin from crossing his lips. His father, Simon Holden, is splayed across the sofa, dead to the world. Simon's mouth hangs open. He doesn't move. All is quiet except for the inner workings of Matt's mind running in overdrive.

"I guess it worked," he says to himself in a whisper, as if afraid his father might overhear or that Simon might wake up at any moment. Not likely, Matt rations, knowing the amount of powder he'd mixed in his father's coffee would be enough to drop a horse.

He sees his father's coffee mug has been dropped to the floor, its contents soaking and staining the light carpet. A stab of remorse hits him, and he attempts to clean the mess, kneeling and picking up the mug while dabbing at the coffee.

The last thing Matt wanted to do was to have to drug his own father, but if that's what it took to keep Simon from getting the divorce he so desperately craved...

His guilt is quickly replaced by a white-hot fury directed at his mother. All of her scheming and manipulating ... she's the one to blame here, not Matt. If she hadn't been such a spectacular failure as a wife and mother, none of this would even be necessary.

Matt knows his father would be better off without her — he'd probably better off without Matt too, if he was being honest with himself — but his father is all he has left. He refuses to let him leave.

And that's exactly what Simon will do. He's already told Matt as much. He intends to leave Marquette Cove the second he's divorced and done with Valerie Hanley-Holden once and for all. Thankfully for Matt, that doesn't look like it's going to be happening today...

Matt stands from the floor, looking down at his father. I can't let you leave me, he thinks. No matter how awful I've been.

His moment of reflection is interrupted by the sound of his father's cell phone beeping from the table. It startles him enough that he drops the mug he's been holding. It shatters as it hits the edge of the coffee table, but Matt doesn't care. He scrambles to silence the phone, afraid the sound will wake Simon.

A new voicemail? Matt listens to the unheard message, not recognizing the caller until he says he's Simon's divorce attorney.

"...so, because of the eclipse, our offices are closing early today, driving conditions being what they are. I'm sorry to cancel our appointment last minute like this. Get back to me when you get this, and we'll reschedule..."

Matt deletes the message before it ends. Cancelling a meeting because of an eclipse? A pretty lame excuse, but since it works in Matt's favor, he decides not to question it.

Then that means the whole drugging thing — not really necessary after all, it seems...

"Dad!" Matt shouts down at Simon. "Get up!" He prods Simon's leg with his foot, but his father remains still.

"Wakey, wakey!" he singsongs, giving Simon's cheek a few gentle slaps. Still nothing.

Sensing something isn't quite right, Matt inches his face closer to Simon, inspecting his father with a deeper concern. He's as sleepy and stark as ever. He looks like hell. No, worse than that — he looks like death.

Matt watches, waits for some sign of life. His father doesn't move a muscle, not even the normal rise and fall of his chest as he sleeps. Is he even breathing?

Matt pokes Simon's shoulder. Oh shit! he silently panics. He jabs him in the shoulder again, then punches it hard. Simon's arm falls from the side of the couch as Matt roughs him up, but it just dangles there lifelessly.

"Dad! Wake up!" Matt pleads. Killing his father was never a part of his all-too-brilliant plan.


MARQUETTE COVE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Chris Server scopes out the halls of the hospital, checking around before sneaking his way to Blake Thomas's room. He doesn't particularly have any reason to hide, but he'd rather not run into any of Blake's friends today, since they all think Chris is the scum of the earth. He especially hopes to avoid that sanctimonious prick, Darren Reynolds, if he's even here.

Darren never deserved Blake, and this just goes to prove that. Here Blake is, laid up in the hospital, and Darren is nowhere to be found. Chris wishes he could stop Blake from caring for Darren. He knows Darren is the reason Blake continually refuses to get back with him. But where is Darren now? Does he even care that Blake's in the hospital? That he could die?

Unlike Darren, Chris raced down here the moment he heard — overheard, really — that Blake had been in an accident. If he hadn't been sentenced to community service at the hospital, he wouldn't even know Blake had been assaulted — by Darren's new boyfriend, no less.

No, Darren's definitely not who Blake needs to see right now. Chris knows that Blake needs him...

But when he looks into Blake's hospital room, someone has already beaten him there.

And it's not just any someone hovering at Blake's bedside ... it's one of the last people Chris ever expected to see again. Because it's Damon Johnson. And he's supposed to be dead...

"Damon? How are you here? How are you alive?" is all Chris manages to sputter out.

"I'm not. Well, I'm here obviously, but I'm not alive." Damon shrugs, as if that paltry response is supposed to answer the million questions Chris has for his former friend. "You can thank him for that," he mutters, glaring at a comatose Blake.

Chris thinks he must be losing it. He scrubs at his eyes, trying to wipe Damon away, but when he opens them, Damon remains. As terrifying as it is to see Damon as a ghost or whatever he is now, a part of him is comforted to see Damon again after all this time. It is, at least, until he sees what Damon is doing.

Damon tampers with the IV bag at Blake's bedside, removing a syringe and replacing it with one of his own.

"What are you doing!" Chris barks, rushing across the room to wrestle the syringe from Damon's hand.

"I'm poisoning your former flame. To make sure this coma of his isn't just temporary."

"Like hell you are," Chris says, keeping the syringe from Damon. "And did you really just call him my former flame? No offense, but that sounded really gay..."

"Just give it back!" the ghost of Damon fumes, plucking the syringe from Chris's hands before he can react.

"No! Don't hurt him!" Chris says, diving at Damon. Damon vanishes then reappears a split-second later, just in time for Chris to dive through him and smash face-first into the wall.

"Blake Thomas murdered me!" Damon says, hot with anger now. He looks down to Blake who is blissfully unaware he's about to be murdered in his sleep. "It's about time for justice to be served."

Love is eternal. Life is forever.
Yet things shall always remain...guasti cose.


MARQUETTE COVE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

"Alec, what happened to Jessica?" Darren Reynolds asks his cousin as they stand outside Jessica's hospital room.

Alec Bale's eyes dart to each member of the group that's gathered in the hall. He can't help but think they're all accusing him, implicating him somehow. They know what he's done.

But how can that be? Alec himself doesn't even know how or why he attacked his wife the way he did. He never meant for this to happen.

His eyes lock on to Farrah's, and she looks away guiltily. He can only hope she goes along with this. "Somebody attacked her," he starts, hesitant at first, but trying to convince himself of his own lie. "We came back to the house and we just ... found her like this." He looks into her hospital room, not having to force or fake the tears that are now welling in his eyes.

"Dios mio," Natalie Reyes gasps, joining him now to look in at Jessica. "My baby..."

They see Jessica hooked to machines, her face a mess of bruises that renders her nearly unrecognizable.

"Why weren't you with her to protect her?" Natalie asks, turning to Alec.

Alec chokes on his response. Farrah rests a gentle hand on Natalie's shoulder. "We were going to surprise her," she says.

Oh, she was surprised, all right, Alec thinks, recounting the savage way in which he'd battered his own wife.

"Surprise her how? Who are you?" Alec's stepmother, Melissa, asks, her skepticism apparent.

"I'm a friend of Jessica's ... and Alec's," she adds, looking to him for help. "We were out shopping for Jessica. Alec wanted to get her a new wedding ring. A real one, not that crackerjack thing she's been wearing around. He asked me to help him pick one out, since he has such awful taste," Farrah says sadly. "We were going to surprise her with it until..."

Alec narrows his eyes at Farrah. Thanks for the help, he thinks bitterly. Farrah is only complicating things — creating an entirely new set of problems for him. Now he has to buy Jessica a new wedding ring on top of everything else?

"This is terrible," Natalie moans, looking in at her daughter once more. Apparently, she's buying the lie, at least for now.

"You can see Jessica now," her doctor says, appearing from her hospital room. "But she's comatose."

"A coma?" Natalie asks, horrified. Without hesitation, she rushes into Jessica's room. Melissa and Farrah follow. Once the doctor leaves them, Darren and Alec are alone in the hall.

"Alec, what really happened here?" Darren demands to know. "You were really going to buy a new wedding ring for her?"

Alec shrugs. "I know Jessica and I were having our share of problems, but we were really working things out these past few days. We were getting close again," he lies. "We were going to start over. Until ... this..." he chokes back a sob.

After what seems like forever, Darren's expression softens. He puts a hand on Alec's shoulder. "I'm really sorry."

"Save it," Alec says, pulling away.

"I — I should go check on Jack and Blake," Darren says, uncomfortable. He can't get away fast enough.

Alec wishes he could do the same.



Groaning from where he's fallen to the floor, Chris Server looks up at Damon, who is about to inject his own special brand of retribution into Blake's IV. "No!" Chris grabs on to Damon's pant leg, surprised to discover his friend's other-worldly form is corporeal, at least for the moment.

"Why do you even care what happens to him after the way he's treated you? After what he did to me?" Damon asks, annoyed. "He's only bringing you down. You gave up on yourself and all the progress you made. You've reverted back to drug dealing for Quentin Blood to keep Blake from being exposed, and what did that get you? Absolutely nothing. Blake should be thanking you for saving his ass, but instead he just ignores you."

"He doesn't understand why I had to go back to working for Quentin," Chris says. "That's the only reason he pulled away from me. It was my fault. Blake's a good person. He doesn't deserve this!"

"Did I deserve to have my heart cut out of my body?" Damon snorts. "He's not a good person, trust me. I'm living — well, not-so-living — proof of that. He's the worst kind of person. He's the kind of person who pretends he's good, then lets other people take the fall for him. Honestly, I don't see why you feel you should be the one to defend him?

Chris is on his feet, finally. He looks at Blake differently now, wondering if maybe part of what Damon was saying was true.

"He's screwed up your life almost as badly as he's destroyed mine. You should be pissed off, too!"

As he listens to Damon's infectious tirade, Chris can't help but face the feelings he hasn't been able to reconcile. He is mad at Blake. A part of him has been mad for a long time now.

After everything Chris went through to protect Blake, Blake's never come clean to him about Damon's murder and his part in it. He's wanted to believe all this time that Blake couldn't have murdered anybody — that he's too innocent for that — but Damon and Quentin Blood have both made it clear to him that Blake was involved in the crime. Maybe he should be more angry at Blake than he is...

"Okay! Fine! It does bother me," Chris admits, while Damon smiles triumphantly.

"Not quite The Greatest Love of All anymore?" Damon asks, clapping a hand on Blake's immobile shoulder.

"Don't touch him!" Chris orders, fired up now.

"But I thought —?"

"What? You thought I'd be okay with letting you poison him because I admitted our relationship's been a little fucked up lately? Well, I'm not, and you can't, so stay away from him."

Damon grimaces but backs away from Blake's bedside. "You know, you're really pathetic. I was beginning to regain hope that this whole thing was just some weird phase —"

"You're pathetic," Chris says. "You're dead. Get over it, and leave Blake alone. Leave me alone too, while you're at it."

Damon shakes his head with disappointment. His ghostly figure becomes more and more translucent until, finally, he fades from the room completely.

But Chris doesn't even notice. He's holding Blake's hand.

"I still love you," he says, meaning the words more than ever. "I won't lose you ... no matter what I have to do to make sure of it."


HOLDEN HOME

"Wake up, Dad!" Matt begs his father, climbing onto Simon and pounding his fists against his father's chest. "Oh, God! What have I done?" he wails. The one reason he drugged Simon was to make sure the man stayed a part of his life. To make sure his father didn't leave...

"Don't panic! Don't panic," Matt tells himself, pacing across the room as he gathers his thoughts. But then his eyes fall on Simon, his dear, dead dad, and he loses it all over again.

Matt hastily removes the vial of powder from his pocket, looking for a warning label, instructions, anything that might be of help. But, of course, it's just a clear vial with only a tiny bit of the drug remaining. Did you think there'd be an instruction book, you idiot?

"Goddamn it!" he shouts, smacking himself in the forehead.

"Get up!" He screams through his tears, his face inches from Simon's ear now. He gives his father another violent shake, rocking Simon's body to the core.

Then, finally: "Unnhh ... What ... the ... hell?" Simon Holden groans, his head rolling to the side as he opens his eyes to see Matt.

"Dad! You're awake!" Matt cries, surprised but overjoyed. He quickly wipes away his tears.

"Barely," Simon groans, unable to sit up in his current haze. "Matt? Did someone violate me? I feel ... off." He tries to sit once more, and fails until Matt rushes to his side to prop him up.

"Sorry. I had to hit you a bit to wake you up."

"But why does my head feel so weird?"

"How should I know?" Matt asks. "You've haven't been getting much sleep lately, have you? Stressed out over this whole divorce thing, maybe? Speaking of which, you got a call from your lawyer. He had to cancel your meeting for today. That's what I was trying to wake you up to tell you."

"Oh. Thanks," Simon says, rubbing his stiff, battered back.

Matt winces, feeling guilty for the abuse his father's suffered at his hands. "Sorry about ... hitting you," Matt says sheepishly. He picks up the shards of the coffee mug and dumps them into a pile on the table. "I think you must have dropped this or something," Matt says. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

Simon nods. "Nothing a hot shower and a fresh cup of coffee can't cure ... I hope. Thanks for your help, Matt."

Matt hangs back, hesitant to leave, but once he's gone from the room, Simon grabs his phone from the table. He listens to his messages, hearing the call from his divorce attorney."Who cancels an appointment over an eclipse?" Simon asks himself, tossing the phone aside. It misses the table and falls to the floor.

When Simon leans down to retrieve the cell, he sees the fresh stain on the carpet. Dark coffee, blotted into an inky mess. But what's really intriguing is what he sees next — a small glass vial.

As Simon examines what's left of the vial's contents, he thinks his sudden pounding headache and residual grogginess are beginning to make a lot more sense.


MARQUETTE COVE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Darren Reynolds sits outside Jack Atlas's hospital room when Dr. Anderson approaches him. "Darren, good news. Jack's cut up a bit, but we've patched him up and he should be just fine."

"That's great to hear, thanks," Darren says with a sigh of relief. He knows he should be happier to hear of Jack's recovery, but he's still miserable knowing Blake is fighting for his life ... and knowing he's to blame for the entire situation.

He never should have let himself give into his desire for Blake. He'd convinced himself he was in love with Jack now. What he had with Blake was supposed to be over. How could he blame Jack for lashing out after catching him cheating with Blake?

Now, he has to try to explain to Jack. He has to convince Jack to forgive him, somehow.

"Can I see him?" Darren asks. When the doctor says yes, Darren heads into the room.



Outside, Chris stands near the nurses' station, where Dr. Anderson talks to a younger doctor and a short, stone-faced nurse. He doesn't pay them much attention until he hears them discussing Blake.

"Mr. Thomas has lost a lot of blood. He'd almost bled out by the time the ambulance arrived. He's lucky to be alive," Dr. Anderson says gravely.

"What more can we do for him really?" the younger doctor asks. "We've patched up his wounds, but he's too weak..."

"He's got to have a blood transfusion. He's too weak to handle anything else until he's stabilized and his blood count's back up."

"Should we prepare for the transfusion, then?" the nurse asks.

"Yes." Dr. Anderson flips through a stack of paperwork. "It says here that our patient, Jack Atlas, is Type O-negative. A universal donor. He's in stable condition now. If he's willing, we should do this as soon as possible."

From where he's standing, Chris Server's throat tightens. He said he would do anything to save Blake, but he can't let this blood transfusion happen.

If it does, everything he's worked so hard for will be ruined. His plotting with Jack to break up Darren and Blake, his faking of Jack being HIV-positive ... it could all be revealed.

END OF EPISODE #241

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