Previously...
- Claire decided to keep her affair with Jimmy a secret from her family and friends. 
- Jimmy insisted to Diane that the bookstore was merely being used as a front for filtering real estate money, but she implied that Keith was screwing him out of a more lucrative deal. Jimmy secretly teamed up with Brent to conduct a sting, and he lured both Keith and Diane to the store. When Keith found that Jimmy was wearing a wire, he pulled a gun--and Sarah, who had come to save Diane, was shot in the fray. 
- Sarah was brought into surgery. Matt went to the hospital chapel to pray, and Danielle overheard him admitting in his prayer that he still loves Sarah. 

As Danielle Taylor returns to the waiting area, Matt Gray's words clang around in her head:

"Please let Sarah be okay. I love her. I need her to be okay."

She feels guilty for having overheard his prayer, uttered in what he thought  was an empty chapel, but the door was open and she had gone to find him. She retreated without letting him know that she'd been there or that she'd heard the… confession? Is it even a surprise to hear him say aloud that he loves Sarah? They were married, and they have a daughter. Of course he loves her.

Still, something about it--the passion behind it, maybe--nags at Danielle. 

She finds Matt's teenage daughter leaning against a wall, focused on her iPhone. Diane Bishop stands near her, arms folded across her chest.

"Your dad's in the chapel," Danielle says. "He'll be out in a minute."

Tori looks up, her chestnut hair falling across her eyes. "Okay." 

"Do you know what happened?" Danielle asks Diane. She keeps her voice even, betraying no hint of the fact that she would be happy never to see this woman again; the situation is too serious to allow personal grudges to seep in. 

"She was shot," Diane says. "She came running into the bookstore, and Keith was waving a gun around--" She stops short as something catches her eye near the entry, and Danielle follows her gaze to find Brent Taylor and Jimmy Trask entering. "Maybe these two can fill in some of the blanks," Diane says. The two men rush over to join them. "Have you heard anything yet?" Brent asks.

Diane shakes her head. 

"Hey, Tori," Brent says, offering the girl a comforting pat on the shoulder. 

The girl brushes her hair back behind her ears. "Hey."

Danielle looks at Brent and Jimmy. "Did you guys come together?"

They trade a look before Jimmy explains, "We were both at the bookstore."

Her follow-up questions are cut off when Matt returns to the waiting area. He slips through the group to embrace his daughter.

"She's gonna be fine," he says, pulling Tori close.

Danielle watches the father and daughter pair. A new tidal wave of guilt washes over her at the same time a thought hits her: This is Matt's family. Not me. She hates that she would even think of something so personal, so petty, at a time like this, so she pushes the thought down.

A pair of swinging doors open, and Claire Fisher steps into the waiting area in her scrubs. She takes in the new arrivals.

"She's out of surgery," she announces. "The doctor will be out to tell you more in a minute, but I wanted to let you know that she made it through without complications."

"Thank god," Diane says, exhaling loudly. 

"When can we see her?" Matt asks.

Claire is about to answer when something new catches her attention. Danielle watches as Claire stares at Jimmy--and he stares back.

"Jimmy?" she says. "What are you doing here?"

Philip Ragan closes the door to the office behind himself. Molly Taylor rises from her seat behind the desk and walks around to greet him, but instead of their usual, easy kiss hello, they simply stand before one another.

"How have you been?" Philip asks, his voice its usual composed, polite self--which sounds chilly and distant to Molly's ear.

"Fine. How about you?"

Philip shrugs. "I've been all right. Do you have a few minutes to talk?"

"Of course. Yeah. Have a seat." She gestures at the pair of club chairs on one side of the desk. Philip takes one, and Molly crosses back around to the other side of the desk.

"I thought we should talk about the other night," he says. "The way that you brought Travis to my place…"

"He needed to see Spencer."

"He didn't need to see him. He was angry and on a tear, and you decided to facilitate that. What did you think was going to happen?"

"I don't know," she admits. She had been surprised to receive a call from Travis at all; they don't have the kind of aunt-nephew relationship that involves unexpected weekday phone calls. But when he explained what had happened with Elly and Spencer, she felt compelled to help. 

"Travis was looking for a fight," Philip says, "and you were all too happy to help him find it."

"I wasn't encouraging him to brawl with Spencer."

"Of course not. But you didn't think anything productive was going to come out of that confrontation, did you?"

Molly hesitates. The answer is on the tip of her tongue before she even realizes it: she wanted to prove how much of a troublemaker Spencer is, how having him live in the same house as her sons would be a terrible idea. She wanted Philip to see it firsthand. But admitting that seems so… calculated. In the moment, it was much more of an emotional decision.

A sharp buzzing suddenly commands her attention. She looks at her phone, which sits atop the desk, and sees her parents' number calling. She sends the call to voicemail before continuing. 

"Maybe it was rash of me to bring him over," she says. "But after he told me what Spencer had done--to him, to Elly, and to Samantha--I felt like I didn't have a choice. Travis deserved an explanation."

"Spencer says it was an accident."

"Oh, come on. It was not an accident. He used Samantha to get information that he knew would hurt Travis--God only knows why."

Philip remains tight-lipped, and suddenly the desk seems more like an ocean between them.

Her phone explodes into a buzzing frenzy again. When she sees that it is her parents once more, she holds up her index finger.

"Hold on. It's my mom and dad," she tells Philip before quickly answering. "Hey. Is something the matter? I'm--"

Her father's voice cuts her off, and Molly's stomach plummets as she listens to what he has to say. By the time she hangs up, she is already halfway out of her chair, and Philip's expression has loosened into one of genuine concern.

"What's the matter?" he asks, standing. 

"It's Sarah. I have to get to the hospital," she says as she scrambles for her purse.

"I'll drive," Philip says, moving for the door. When Molly hesitates, he urges her, "I'm serious. Come on."

With a grateful nod, her heart thumping inside her chest, she follows him out of the office.

KING'S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Claire knows that she is staring, but the pieces before her simply won't fit together. 

"Jimmy? What are you doing here?" 

"He's with us," Brent says, his face crinkling with confusion. "You two know each other?"

She shakes it off, though she can see the same perplexed reaction in Jimmy now, too. 

"Um, yeah," she says before hastening to add, "Dr. Patel will be out in a second. She'll explain all about the surgery, and you should be able to see Sarah as soon as they finish moving her from the O.R. to a room."

"But she's gonna be okay?" Matt asks, practically leaping out of his own skin.

"We can never say that for certain," Claire says, even though she wants to say it, "but the fact that there were no complications during the surgery is very promising." 

At this moment, Dr. Patel comes through the swinging doors, and Claire introduces her to the family. She steps aside and listens as the doctor begins to explain about the bullet fragment that struck Sarah's liver and the perihepatic packing they used to halt the bleeding, but it's difficult to ignore the side glances that Jimmy keeps throwing her way. When Dr. Patel departs and everyone scatters, only to linger and wait some more, Jimmy approaches Claire.

"You know Brent?" he asks. A queasy feeling hits her, but she answers simply, "He used to be my brother-in-law. How do you know him?" "He's my--" Jimmy stumbles over the explanation for a moment. "I have a kid with his sister." The queasiness from a moment ago turns into full-on stomach gymnastics. "You and Danielle… you're…?"

"We haven't been together in a long time," he hurriedly adds. "Like, 21 years. Our daughter's--"

"Elly."

Jimmy draws back. "How'd you know that?"

"Travis is my son."

"Wait. What?"

"Oh, this is too good," says a third voice--one of the last ones Claire could possibly want to hear right now.

She turns to Diane, who is standing a few feet away with her arms crossed and a smug smile stretched across her face.

"This is a private conversation," Claire says.

"The two of you know each other?" Jimmy asks.

"Our kids have the same father," Diane says.

Claire's eyes burn a laser-like glare into Diane. "Because she assaulted my husband."

"That's ancient history," Diane snaps back.

Jimmy takes a step backward. "Sounds like you two have some stuff to work out."

Diane simply smirks. "So this is your new man, Claire? Your own son's girlfriend's father, and you had no idea? That might be a new low for you."

"Shut up, Diane."

"No, it's really terrific. I can't think of two losers who deserve each other more." With another haughty laugh, Diane turns and walks away.

Claire scans the room, happy to see that Matt, Danielle, and Tori are all too distracted to have noticed anything. Brent, unfortunately, seems to be paying attention out of the corner of his vision. 

"This is frickin' weird," Jimmy says. "And by the way, your kid pulled some really shady shit with Elly."

"You don't even know the half of it," Claire says, shaking her head as she waits for any of this to sink in.

KING'S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Philip parks his Mercedes on the fifth floor of the hospital's parking structure. The whole ride has been a blur to Molly, as she has been trading texts with family members and receiving bits of information along the way. She is simply grateful to have arrived here in one piece and, despite the tension between them earlier, grateful to have Philip by her side.

They wait 30 or so seconds for the elevator, and when it arrives, the doors open to reveal her older brother waiting inside.

"Hey, you guys," Tim Fisher says. 

Molly quickly gives him a hug. The elevator doors close behind her and Philip. 

"Mom just texted me again," Tim reports. "Apparently Sarah's out of surgery, and it went well. She and Dad have Billy, so they're on their way over now."

"Do you know anything about what happened?" Philip asks. "All we heard is that there was a shooting at that bookstore."

"That's all I know, too. Diane said she would explain when I get there," Tim says. 

They ride in silence for a few seconds before Philip asks, "How is Spencer doing at Vision?"

"Pretty well, honestly. He's picking things up quickly, and he's actually listening to me."

Molly suppresses the reflex to make a sarcastic comment about how unlikely that seems.

"That's good," Philip says. "I can't thank you enough for taking him under your wing there."

Tim sighs. "I only wish it were making some difference in the rest of his life."

"I'm really sorry about all the madness with him, Travis, and Elly," Philip says, offering Molly a sideways glance at the same time.

"So am I," Tim says. "Not just them--Samantha. Spencer really took advantage of her. She's a genuine, trusting kid, and for him to do that--"

"I know." 

The elevator reaches the ground floor, and its door open, but all three of them hesitate in stepping off.

"I just hope you understand that it's complicated," Philip says. 

"I do." Tim steps out of the elevator and then turns back to finish his thought: "But what Spencer did, to Samantha and to Travis, was vicious, and there's no excuse for that. Now let's go see Sarah."

Tim strides across the lobby of the hospital toward the other elevator bank. Philip reaches for Molly's hand, and she lets him take it. They follow Tim together, Molly wondering if her brother was actually able to make a dent regarding Spencer's antics.

KING'S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

The stark white and the fluorescent lights of the hospital room bring back terrible memories for Matt. He remembers his own hospitalization two years ago, after Graham tried to have him killed; even worse, he recalls so vividly looking at Sarah lying in a bed just like this, fighting for her life and for the life of their child inside her. 

He and Tori have been standing by Sarah's bedside, watching her rest and voicing the occasional word of inspiration, when her eyelids begin to flutter.

"Hi," she says dreamily. Matt can see the exact moment when she becomes aware that something is off. Her hazy eyes scan the room, and she begins to absorb that she is in the hospital. Tori takes her mother's hand. "There was an accident," Matt explains. It's not quite the truth, but it's the simplest way to explain it at the moment without alarming her. "You just had surgery. You're fine, though. The doctor says you're going to be fine."  "What happened?" Sarah asks.

He would rather not go into the details, but this is Sarah. She's going to press regardless. 

"A gun went off," he says.

Her voice is thin as she asks, "Someone shot me?"

This is one of those times when he wishes she didn't have the mind of an investigator, so ready and eager to stitch pieces together. 

"You got hit," he says. "You had surgery to remove the fragments. The doctor says it went really well."

"Good." She weakly reaches for Tori. "It's so good to see you, honey."

"You, too, Mom." Tori leans down and gives Sarah a careful hug.

Suddenly Sarah's face tightens. "Where's Billy? Who--"

"He's in the waiting room," Matt says. "Your parents brought him over."

"I'll go get him," Tori says. 

Sarah strains through a smile. "I'd love that. Thank you."

Tori exits, and Matt is acutely aware of the fact that he and Sarah are alone together--something that has not happened since Christmas, when they were locked in the Fishers' attic. 

And then he can't help himself. He leans down and wraps his arms around her, careful not to squeeze but still using a strong, firm embrace.

"I'm so glad you're okay," he says. "I don't know what I'd do without you." He plants his lips on her forehead and lets them linger there for a long moment.

When he pulls back, though, Sarah's face is not at all what he expected.

"Matt," she says, her voice guarded. "What are you doing?"

KING'S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Jimmy returns from the waiting room with three cups of coffee and finds Danielle and Brent talking with two other men and a woman. 

"They just took Matt and Tori back a few minutes ago," Danielle finishes explaining. 

Jimmy hands the two Taylors their coffees and is introduced to Sarah's brother Tim, sister Molly, and the sister's fiancé, whose name leaves Jimmy's head as quickly as it enters.

"So you're Elly's dad," Tim says. "I'm Travis's father."

The two men shake hands.

"You and Claire had met before?" Danielle asks Jimmy.

He flinches, not sure how he is supposed to answer that. "Oh, uh, yeah. Just didn't realize our kids were dating--how's that for weird?"

"It's pretty weird," Brent says, his expression implying that he suspects there is more at play.

Luckily, it seems to go over Tim's head. 

"Do we have any more news?" an older woman calls as she rushes into the waiting area.

Molly and Tim both go over to hug the woman, whom Jimmy guesses must be their mother. A few seconds later, an older man enters, pushing a baby stroller. 

"Hi, Dad," Molly says as she goes over to him.

Tim repeats the last of what they heard: that Sarah's ex-husband and kid were allowed to go in to see her and that she is apparently still doing fine. As the family gathers in a circle, Jimmy takes a seat. He is relieved that Sarah is seemingly going to be okay, and he wonders how much longer he needs to stay here if everything is all right. He still can't believe how terribly wrong the sting went.

He sees Diane return from wherever she went, and almost immediately, Brent crosses the room to speak with her. Jimmy wonders if Keith could still be right: could Diane be more involved in the bookstore operation than any of them knew?

Across the room, Diane sees Brent coming toward her, his gait a little uneven, as always since the accident. She can tell from the look on his face that this isn't going to be good, and she thinks of spinning back around and rushing away, but that would only look more suspicious.

"I need to have a word with you," Brent says, backing her into the corridor.

"What's the matter?" she says. "And by the way, would you mind telling me why in the hell I was a part of whatever shitstorm you and Jimmy concocted back at the store?"

"I'm saying this as a--well, not exactly as a friend, but as someone who has known you for a long time," Brent says. "Get yourself a lawyer. As soon as we know Sarah's out of the woods, I'm going to be bringing you in for questioning."

"Believe me. I know even less than you do. I quit that place months ago--"

"I'm not discussing this with you now. But get a lawyer and prepare yourself," he says before turning around and returning to the Fishers. 

She knows that she covered her tracks--that Keith paid her off in unmarked bills, that she was never privy to any details of whatever he was doing at the bookstore--but she can't help but wonder if he or Jimmy will still somehow find a way to throw her under the bus.

Over my dead body, she thinks before she pushes the matter out of her mind and goes over to see Tim.

KING'S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

The energy that overtook Matt a moment ago comes screeching to a halt. It's rare for him to get so emotional, and he can feel himself folding back inward under Sarah's intense stare.

"I was just…" The words dribble formlessly out of his mouth. "I'm glad you're okay. That's all."

"Okay." 

She looks more alert than she did even a minute ago, but not in the way that Matt was hoping. He's not even sure what he was hoping. 

"Is Danielle here?" she asks.

The question catches him entirely off-guard. Is Danielle here? Why is she even bringing Danielle up now--to throw her in his face?

"She's in the waiting room," he says. "Why?"

"I'm just asking."

Sarah lifts her head and then, just as quickly, drops it back onto the pillow. Her face is pale and her eyes are lined in purple.

"I'm just really happy that you made it through okay," he says. He can feel himself fumbling, like he's plummeting through the dark, sticking out his hands and hoping to grasp onto something that will help stop the fall.

"Thank you." She rolls her head to one side, making it impossible for him to continue eye contact. "I just think… after Christmas, and after everything else… I think we need to be careful."

"Be careful?"

"Yeah."

The thought lingers between them, a thick smoke that cannot be cleared. At some point, Matt doesn't know what else to do and turns away--and that's when he sees Tori standing in the doorway, barely holding on to a squirming Billy.

"I'll give you some time with the kids," Matt says.

He helps Tori set Billy down carefully and then hurries out of the room, eager to put this whole weird interaction behind him.

END OF EPISODE #732

Why did Sarah react that way to Matt?
Is Diane going to find herself in big trouble?
What will Claire do now that she knows who Jimmy is?
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