Previously...
- Sarah raced to defuse the bomb before Nick could blow up the restaurant. She
had it in her hands when she detonated it.
- Brent was found unconscious and unresponsive amongst the rubble.
- Tim--and his kids--spotted Nick's decapitated body in the aftermath of the
explosion.
- The medics discovered Sarah's lifeless body in the remains of the restaurant.
KING'S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Molly rocks back and forth in her seat, as she has been doing for at least an hour now. The waiting room is full of people she loves, but she feels utterly alone. They have been waiting for news for a long time--too long, it feels like. There should have been some updates by now.
She would give anything to hold the twins right now, to feel part of Brent close to her, but the doctors wanted to give the toddlers full evaluations just to be sure. They thought it would be best for Molly to wait out here, in case she became hysterical, but the separation is making her even crazier.
A few seats over, Matt sits quietly with Tori. Molly feels that she should say something to them. They are all in the same situation: waiting for news that could change their lives forever, helpless to do anything to alter what has been set in motion. But the few words that she and Matt exchanged a while ago were stilted and, somehow, only made her edgier. It was as though they had too much shock between them to hold even the most cursory of conversations.
"We should hear something soon," Danielle, seated beside Molly, says, as if able to tell exactly what she is thinking.
Molly nods and tries to act as though that means anything. As much as she wants from the doctors, she would rather have no news than bad news. She is not ready to have her life change so drastically.
When the doors swing open and a doctor enters, a new tension settles over the waiting room. Bill, Paula, Tim, Diane, Samantha--they all edge forward in their seats and shift their eyes from Matt to Molly and back again. Whose news is it?
"Mrs. Taylor?" the doctor, an older woman, asks.
Suddenly Molly wants to deny it. Something about the doctor's demeanor, the way that her chin is tipped downward, makes her want to run out of here and never look back. She would rather go the rest of her life not knowing than have to face such an undeniable truth.
She considers doing exactly that, but a reassuring look from her own mother is somehow enough to make her stand.
"That's me," she says. She feels like she is asking to be beaten and tortured.
The doctor's eyes fall downward, to match her chin. "I'm so sorry. We did everything that we could."
KING'S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
After the doctor leads Molly away, Matt knows what is coming. It is only a matter of time before someone emerges to tell him about Sarah's fate. That prospect is bad enough, but Tori's presence beside him amplifies it times ten. His daughter has been unable to sit still for more than two minutes straight: she has been in her seat, out of it, picking up magazines, going to the cafeteria with Jason and Courtney, back in her seat…
Now she sits on the floor beside Paula, leafing through a People magazine that, under any other circumstances, Matt would tell her to put down. At the moment, though, he is grateful to have her occupied with anything at all.
Bill rises from his seat beside his wife and sits down next to Matt. The men remain in silence for a long time, several minutes, before Bill speaks.
"I know what you're thinking," he says, "but you don't have to. She could be okay."
Without even meaning to do so, Matt winds up shaking his head.
Bill persists. "They said there were multiple blasts. One of the bombs wasn't enough to blow up that place alone. That means--"
"It means there's a reason she wasn't blown into a million pieces," Matt says, speaking in a heavy whisper. "Doesn't mean she's going to live."
"Don't give up on her yet. You can't."
Matt eyes Tori as he talks to Bill.
"How am I going to tell her?" he wonders aloud. "God, how am I going to raise her?" He loves his daughter, but the thought of raising her without Sarah as a partner is too terrifying to consider. Except he has to.
Tori catches him watching her. Matt tries to divert his gaze.
"Dad," she says, and when he finally looks back at her, she asks, "What's taking so long? When can we go home?"
Matt's throat feels like it has been stuffed full of cotton balls--it is too dry and too full, somehow, to get out any words at all. He has no idea how to answer Tori.
Then the doors swing open again. Suddenly he wishes that all he had to deal with was explaining the potential outcome--the inevitable outcome--to his daughter.
"Mr. Gray," says the doctor, a man in his late 30s whom Matt met very briefly earlier. "I have news about your wife."
Tori puts down the magazine and stands.
"I'm sure you did everything you could," Matt says, though he makes no move to stand.
"We did," the doctor says, "and so far, your wife is hanging on."
KING'S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Molly stands in the hallway with the doctor, a closed door in front of them.
"You don't have to go in if you don't want to," the doctor tells her.
"No. I need to."
As the doctor opens the door for her, Molly closes her eyes. After everything that they have been through today, she suddenly finds herself unable to hold it together any longer. The tears brim in her eyes as she steps into the room, and they spill over as soon as she looks at the motionless figure in the bed.
In a tender tone that she has no doubt used countless times before, the doctor says, "We did everything that we could, but her injuries were too severe."
Sobbing heavily, Molly approaches the bed where Camille Lemieux lies. In all the confusion, in all her worry over Brent, it had never crossed her mind that Camille wouldn't make it. When they arrived at the hospital, the doctors told her that Camille needed surgery, but it didn't sound life-threatening. She wasn't prepared for this.
"As I said, there were some unforeseen complications," the doctor explains before rattling off a list of terms that make no impact whatsoever upon Molly.
Molly takes Camille's hand. It is cold and clammy in a way that makes her recoil, but she holds on tightly. She never even had the chance to say a proper goodbye or to let Camille know how much of an impact she had made upon Molly.
Camille's face looks peaceful, but now she looks so different from how Molly remembers her. For someone who was so glamorous and full of verve on a daily basis, Camille looks so ordinary now.
The tears fall faster and the sobs come harder. She cries not just for her own loss, but for this woman who did so much for her but has no one else to be here for her now.
KING'S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Having been admonished by a nurse for running, Josh Taylor walks as fast as he possibly can down the hospital corridor. It isn't often that something rattles him, but ever since receiving Danielle's call about the disaster at the restaurant and Brent's tenuous condition, Josh has felt shaky and dizzy. It seems like a miracle that he made it here in one piece.
"How is he?" he asks as he charges into the room bearing the number that Danielle gave him.
"He's okay," Danielle says as they embrace, but the answer seems noncommittal.
"Okay? What does that mean?"
"It means he's lucky to be alive. He took a major beating back there, Josh, and that was before the bombs went off…"
"Bombs? What the hell?" The whole thing sounds completely foreign to Josh. None of it seems to be within the realm of actual possibility. Bombs? Hostages?
"The squad who came to the scene said it looked like there had been a couple of bombs placed throughout the building," Danielle explains.
There are a million questions that Josh wants to ask. How could Nick Moriani have been alive? Why did he want to blow them all up? Right now, however, his brother's condition is by far his gravest concern.
"What's wrong with him?"
Danielle's head shakes in a way that seems like an apology for not having a better explanation. "A lot of internal bleeding, some broken ribs. I don't know. They operated and did what they could."
Josh looks at Brent, lying there so still and looking so weak, and then drops his head into his hands.
"Where's Molly?" he finally asks.
"She's… in another room. There was someone else who didn't make it."
"Who? One of the twins?" Josh didn't think that this day could get any worse.
"No. Camille Lemieux."
"Oh my God."
"I know."
The siblings stand together in stunned silence. Josh dares not ask any more questions, because each one seems to bring a new bout of bad news.
"Hey," croaks a voice that is neither his nor Danielle's.
Both of them look to the bed. There is Brent, same as he was a moment ago, except that his eyes are now open. They are mere slits, puffy and exhausted, but they are open and he is looking right at Josh and Danielle.
"Brent." Josh moves toward the bed. "How do you feel?"
It takes Brent a long moment to muse over that question, and labored though his response is, it still has some life to it: "Like crap. What happened? Where's Molly? And the boys?"
As Danielle settles in to answer his questions, Josh pulls up a chair. He still cannot believe what his siblings have been through today, but all he cares about right now is that they are all together and safe.
KING'S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
"Can't I think about it for a while?" Matt asks Dr. Hargrove. They stand on opposite sides of Sarah's hospital bed, with the unconscious woman lying between them.
"Of course," Dr. Hargrove says. "But we do have to act relatively soon."
Matt knows that the doctor is speaking from a practical point of view, but from where he stands, the question is far too painful to answer.
"We're lucky that your wife is even alive, given her proximity to the explosion."
"I know." Matt stares at Sarah even as he speaks to the doctor. "There's a chance they'll both be okay, right?"
"There is always a chance," the doctor says, "but the odds aren't in your favor. Not by a long shot. The baby is weak as it is, and the additional strain on your wife's system is going to be an impediment to her recovery."
Matt knows what he has to do. He presses a hand to Sarah's stomach. He wants so badly to feel something, but he isn't sure that he feels anything at all. Resting his hand there, he shuts his eyes tightly and imagines the baby kicking.
The only moment he will ever have with a child that he'll never know.
"Do it," he says.
"This could save your wife's life," the doctor says as he moves for the door.
Eyes still closed, Matt nods. "I hope so."
He hears the doctor leave the room, but he focuses on Sarah and the baby inside her. He knows that, according to the doctor, the baby is not doing well--but for this moment, Matt has to tell himself that the baby is healthy, Sarah is fine, and they have a carefree future ahead of them.
END OF EPISODE #450
Will
Matt's decision be the thing to save Sarah?
What will Camille's death mean for Molly?
Is Brent out of the woods now?
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