Chapter Seven:

Bo awoke the next morning to the sounds of her shower running down the hallway and Matthew shouting at his X-box game, “Touchdown! Eagles score again! Take that Dallas!”

“Whatcha doing there, champ?”

“Playing a football game on my X-box,” not taking his eyes off the TV.

Bo walks over to his bed and sits down beside him, Matthew scooting over to make room, “So who is winning?”

“Duh, Dad…the Eagles are winning. They always win when I’m playing.”

Laughing, “Maybe you should go down to Philly and teach them a thing or two; they’ve got me worried for this season.” Matthew looks up at Bo, staring at him for a moment, his eyes huge with excitement, “What’s the matter, champ?”

“My other dad…well Sam never liked to talk about sports,” turning his attention back to the game.

Bo looked down at his little boy and just smiled. He had wanted to find a common bond with his son; something that Sam had never shared with him, and he had finally found it, “Can your old man play?”

He looks up and smiles; handing his father the game controller, “Okay, now if you want to throw you have to push this button here and then you push this button here for the receiver to catch it.”

Both of them shout at the same time, “Touchdown!”

Nora walks out of her bedroom and walks down the hallway towards Matthew’s room; she stands out in the hallway their son’s voice and question stopping her from making her presence known, “Dad…do you have any other kids? You know, like mom does?”

Bo looks down at his son; his mother’s eyes staring back up at him, full of innocence and curiosity, “Yes, I had a son named Drew.”

“Where is he now?”

“He’s in heaven, champ?”

“Oh…why did he go to heaven? Was he sick?”

“No, he was,” pausing for a moment, “Drew was a cop and one night he was shot.”

“Like my other dad…like Sam?”

“Yeah, champ. Just like Sam.”, looking down at him; another common bond found. Bo lost a son but found another, Matthew lost a “father” and found his real one.

“Do you miss him?”

“All the time.”

“Did he know about me?”

Bo leaned his head back and thought for a moment, so much of the past rushing back in that one question, if Drew hadn’t died…if he hadn’t…No enough what ifs. He looked down at his son, “No, he died before your mom and I found out she was pregnant with you, but he knew we were trying to have a baby. He was excited about having a little brother or sister to watch out for.”

“Just like I will look after the new baby that mom’s having.”

Nora looked down at her watch; wiping a stray tear off her cheek before she walked into the bedroom. She leaned against the door jamb and looked at father and son as they bonded over a game of football, “Hey you two, time to get this show on the road. You’ve got school mister and you and I have a date with the press.”

Bo hands the game controller back to Matthew and ruffles his hair, “We’ll play later tonight, champ.”

“Okay dad,” jumping off the bed and grabbing his backpack. He looks back at his parents before he heads downstairs. “I’m glad you’re my dad,” running out of the room before Bo gets a chance to speak.

“I’m glad I’m your dad too, champ,” he says quietly as he makes his way over to the door, where Nora still stands. He stops in front of her and lays his hand on her cheek, “Thank you…Thank you for that little boy.”

“I can’t take all the credit, Bo. It takes two remember,” smiling mischievously.

“Oh, I remember,” pulling her into a kiss before walking down the hallway towards his room.

Nora stands in Matthew’s room for a moment trying to catch her breath, “Oh, what you do to me, Commish,” she whispers as she turns and walks downstairs.

Forty five minutes later they were standing in one of the ballrooms at the country club preparing for her press conference…

She was lost in thought when he walked up behind her and laid his hands on her shoulders, “What’s up, Red? What’s going on in that head of yours? If you’re having second thoughts now is the time to act on them. We can still walk away.”

She turns around and takes his hand in hers, “No, I’m ready”, she looks over at the press as they take their seats, “Let’s do this.”

He squeezes her hand, “I’ll be right over there”, pointing off to the side of the podium, “You look over at me if you need to, and we’ll get through this together,” He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “I love you, Red.”

She leaned in and whispered in his, “Right back at ya.” She smiled and headed for the podium; adjusting the microphone before beginning, “Good morning ladies and gentleman. First I would like to thank you for coming out this morning. I know it was somewhat last minute and definitely early in the morning but I do have an important announcement to make. As of this morning I will be throwing my hat into the race for District Attorney for Llantano County. As many of you know I have been a defense attorney here in Llanview for the past 10 years and have most recently taken a job in the District Attorney’s office, when it was run by Hank Gannon. Well as many of you also know Hank Gannon has stepped down as District Attorney and Daniel Coulson has been appointed interim DA. I feel I will bring both my experience as a defense attorney with over twenty plus years of service in, as well as my knowledge of the people of Llantano County and the residents of Llanview. I will be supported in my quest for DA by the Commissioner of Police, Bo Buchanan. We will be working closely with each other, insuring that the citizens of Llanview are able to make an educated and informed decision this November. Once again I thank you for coming here today.”

She begins to step down from the podium, when a voice from the back stops her dead in her tracks, “Why don’t you tell the press and the good citizens of Llanview here how close the Commissioner and you are, Nora.” Gabrielle walks towards the front of the room, a wicked smile on her face, “Well, aren’t you going to tell them everything? How Matthew really is Bo’s son, how you’re carrying his child now,” she looks over at Bo, “Are you really sure this child’s yours, Bo? I mean it’s not like she hasn’t lied to you about you being the father of her child before…”

“Gabrielle stop this!”, he walks towards her, glancing up at Nora’s ashen expression.

Ignoring Bo and continuing to walk towards the podium, “Well Nora, are you going to tell them or shall I? Are you going to tell them that this child your carrying is a child that if in fact is Bo’s, was conceived while he was in a relationship?”

Al walks up onto the podium and escorts his mother out of the room. Bo walks up and puts his arm around Nora, as the press bombards them with one question after another. She looks over at Bo and just nods, letting him know she was okay, she could handle this. She walks back up to the podium and adjusts the microphone once again. The press quiets down as she takes a deep breath and begins to speak, “Everything that Ms. Medina spoke of is true. As many of you, who have been living in this town for awhile now, know that Commissioner Buchanan and I were together and married for many years, you also know the circumstances surrounding the birth of my son, Matthew”, looking over at Bo, “the birth of our son, Matthew. It wasn’t until the untimely death of Sam Rappaport that we finally found out the truth. Matthew is indeed Bo’s son. We are both thrilled at the news and had wanted to keep it private for the sake of our son, who does know, but only recently…”

“Is there any truth to Ms. Medina’s accusation that you are pregnant with Commissioner Buchanan’s child?”

“There is no need in denying it, as the truth would end up coming out in time, we had just wanted to wait a bit before announcing it publicly giving us time to inform our family, and deal with the news as a family, that being said, to answer your question; yes, I am pregnant with Bo’s child…”

Bo steps closer to the podium and speaks, “And we’re thrilled to be bringing another child into this world, and that is all we have to say on the matter at this time”, putting his arm around Nora, “Thank you once again for coming this morning and we’ll see you at the polls in November.”

He leads her off the stage and out the side door. He pulls her into one of the rooms and locks the door, knowing she was going to need time to decompress from the onslaught of questions that Gabrielle’s public announcements brought. He pulls her against him and she instantly wraps her arms around his neck, “Its okay, Red. Let it out.”

She begins to cry, the emotions of the day finally hitting home. He continues to hold her until her tears subside. She pulls out of his embrace and looks at him, the tears drying on her face, “Thank you; thank you for being there with me today. I don’t’ think I could’ve gotten through it if you hadn’t been there. I knew our past was going to be brought up, I knew my mistakes would be thrown in my face, and I was prepared for that, I just never thought it would happen this morning. I knew Gabrielle would be hurt over what happened between us, causing you to break the engagement, but I never thought she would out and out try to hurt you that way by revealing Matthew’s paternity like that. I’m just glad we told him ourselves before he ended up hearing about himself on the news or on the playground. When I heard her voice coming from the background it was like the Woman of the Year banquet all over again. Someone was going to publicly air out our personal life and we could do nothing to stop it from happening.”

“Big difference this time, Red, this time I’m not walking out,” taking her hand, “Now let’s go home.”

“Yeah, let’s go home.”

*~*

Across town she sits at a corner table in the darkened bar, “They’ll pay for what they’ve done. They want the perfect family…we’ll just see what will happen to their perfect family when they lose the one thing they treasure the most in this world. We’ll see how strong their love is then”, she whispers to herself as she looks at the photo she holds in her hand.