Chapter Twenty:

“Matthew Hanen Buchanan!”, Nora said firmly, “You apologize to your father right now.”

Bo held up his hand, glancing quickly between Nora and Matthew, “It’s alright, honey. Matthew’s angry and confused. He’s entitled to his feelings.”

Nora handed Destiny to Susannah. She motioned to her, asking her to take her for a walk. Matthew and his father needed time. Susannah took the crying toddler down to the playroom, leaving Matthew, Bo and Nora alone in the room.

Matthew was standing his ground, arms firmly crossed in front of him, his eyes locked on his father, unmoving. Bo had seen this before; he was exactly like his mother. They both dug their heels in and when they did that they were unmovable. Bo stood up and pulled the chair from the corner of the room out to where he had been kneeling, never taking his eyes off of Matthew. He sat down in the chair and crossed his arms much like Matthew was. Nora watched the exchange between father and son and knew they were in for a lot of silence.

Nora slowly climbed out of bed and grabbed the robe that Susannah had brought from home. She walked past Bo; laying a hand on his shoulder. He laid his hand over hers and squeezed it, never taking his eyes off of their son. She walked over to Matthew and stood in front of him, placing her finger under his chin, tilting his face up so that he was looking at her, “Listen to what he has to say, champ.” Matthew looked around her and back at his father. He looked back at his mother and shrugged.

Nora turned and looked at Bo for a moment before walking out the door. She slowly walked down the long hallway towards the playroom. She pushed open the door and made her way over to where Susannah and Destiny were playing. Susannah noticed her walking towards them and went to assist her. She took her hand and led her over to the oversized chairs in the corner of the room. She sat down beside her in the other chair, “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“I’m fine.” She looked over at Destiny who looked up at her mother, her flaming red curls bouncing, her blue eyes dancing with excitement while she played, “Matthew and Bo need time alone.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“I have no idea, you tell me; you’re the shrink.” She noticed the look on her sister’s face, “I’m sorry, Suze. I shouldn’t have said that.” She looks back over at her daughter playing, “All I know is, we have a very angry little boy on our hands whose father has essentially come back from the dead. He’s had a lot to deal with in his short life.”

“He loves his father, Nora.”

“I know he does.” She stands up and walks over to the window, “They just need time to reconnect, to talk.”

The showdown continued in the room down the hall, neither one of them having said a word in the past 15 minutes. Matthew had walked over to the far wall and leaned against it, sliding down onto the floor, pulling his legs up tight against his chest. He twisted a piece of loose string on the bottom of his jeans, his attention split between the string and the man who sat across the room. A half hour after Nora left Matthew finally spoke up, “Mom said I should listen,” he looks up at his father, “So talk.”

“What do you want to know?”

Matthew looked back at the string he had wound so tightly around his finger that the tip had begun to turn blue. He unwound the string and looked back up at his father, “Where were you?”

Bo leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, “I was in New York for a little while and then Ireland.”

Matthew took a few minutes to absorb that piece of information, “Were you stuck somewhere and couldn’t get out?” Bo shook his head. Matthew shot him another angry look, “So you stayed away on purpose!” Bo stood up and walked closer to him. Matthew looked up at his father and shook his head, “Don’t…”

Bo stopped halfway and sat down on the floor across from Matthew, “I did not stay away on purpose, champ.”

Matthew’s head shot up, his eyes blazing, “Don’t call me that!”

Bo held up his hands, “I’m sorry.”

Matthew crossed his arms in front of him again and looked down at the floor. Once again silence came between them. After ten minutes or so Matthew looked up at Bo, “So if you didn’t stay away on purpose what took you so long to come home?”

“When I woke up I couldn’t remember who I was.”

Matthew looked at his father skeptically, “You forgot who you were?”

“Yeah, it’s called amnesia.”

Matthew shook his head, “I don’t understand how someone could forget about their family unless they wanted to?”

“Well, I didn’t want to forget you, or your mother and sister, I promise you that.” He paused for a moment trying to make his explanation as simple as he could, “You see Matthew, when my car exploded that night I hit my head really hard on the ground. When I woke up I was all by myself in the mountains and I had no idea who I was.”

Matthew sat up straight, his earlier anger at his father slowly fading, being replaced with a curiosity about the events that took his father away from them, “How did you get to the mountains?”

Bo thought back to that night and the tall dark-haired man who pulled him away from the burning car. Bo knew now that that man was James Cass. He remembered now, the hours that James spent that first night questioning him. Asking him what he remembered. He left sometime in the middle of the night and never returned. Matthew’s voice brought him out of his thoughts, “I’m sorry, cha…Matthew, what did you ask me again?”

“I asked you how you got to the mountains.”

“Someone took me there and when I woke up the next morning he was gone and I had no idea where I was or how I got there…”

“Or who you were,” Matthew added quietly.

“That’s right.”

Matthew sat up even straighter moving closer to where his father was sitting on the floor across from him, “But now you do…now you remember who we are?”

Bo smiles, “I sure do.” He raises his hand up to the bandage just above his eyebrow, laughing a bit at the fact that he’s going to have matching scars on each side of his head.

“What made you remember?”

Bo thought back to the events earlier in the day, “I think I started to remember when I first saw your mother. She was crossing the street and there was a truck coming. She didn’t see it. I grabbed your mom and pushed her out of the way. When I woke up I remembered everything. I guess you could say this,” pointing at his bandage, “bump on my head knocked the sense back into me.”

Matthew smiled a small smile despite himself, but quickly turned serious. He looked down at his hands resting in his lap, “Did you try to remember who you were…or us?”

“Yep, I knew in here”, placing his hand on his heart, “that I had a family that was missing me, but in here,” pointing to his head, “I didn’t.”

Before Bo knew what was happening Matthew threw his arms around Bo’s neck, almost knocking them both over, “I’m sorry, daddy. I didn’t mean what I said before. We do need you. We do. Please don’t go away again.”

Bo wrapped his arms around his son and held him tight, the tears flowing freely down their faces, “I need you too, champ, you and your mother and sister, your new baby brother. I need all of you.” He lifts Matthew up off his chest and sets him down on his lap, “And I promise you I’m not leaving you, ever again.”

Nora stood outside the door, tears falling down her face as she watched father and son sitting in the middle of the floor, holding onto each other as though their very lives depended on the other…

TBC…