Search and Rescue: 4 Lost Hearts Chapter 9

Bo walked up to Matthew's room and looked at him sleeping there; he ran his hand through his hair, "Dammit, where did this all go so wrong." He walked over to the side of the bed, and climbed in next to his son, taking note of his tear stained cheeks. 'No more' he thought to himself, 'if it's the last thing I do…I will fix this.'

* * *

Ned rolls over when he hears the ringing of his cell phone. He threw back the covers and stumbled in the dark to find the pants he was wearing the earlier. He cursed out loud when he banged his shin against the bed. He found his pants draped across the chair, pulling out and flipping open his phone, "Ashton..."

"Ned its Jax."

"God, Jax, its two o'clock in the morning. What the hell could be this important?"

"Your life my friend; your life, Skye was just here."

“Oh really, and what was she doing there?"

"Asking me to help her get pregnant." Ned could feel the blood drain from his face, "Ned...Ned are you still there?"

"Y...Yeah I'm still here...I knew something was off...My God, Alexis...Jax I've got to go...I need to talk to Alexis."

"Ned...Ned wait a minute. Like you said it's two in the morning and you don't want to risk waking up Kristina. I'm sure now that you know the truth it will keep till the morning."

He runs his hands through his hair in frustration, "You're right...Jax...thank you."

"Hey, I can't let her hurt you....and Alexis...not like this." They said their goodbyes and Ned climbed back into bed. He fell asleep that night with a renewed hope. He would talk to her tomorrow. Tomorrow everything would be okay.

* * * * *

The next morning he woke up to a hand being thrown across his face, he got out of bed and headed downstairs, Nigel walked in the room, "Morning sir, coffee?"

"Yes, please." He walked over and took the cup from Nigel. Looking at his watch, he decided it was late enough to call. He hit the speed dial, and was greeted with, "You've reached Nora and Matthew, we are not in right now, but please leave a message and we will get back to you."

"Damn, Red." He hit the number for her office, "ADA Nora Buchanan, I am not in my office right now, please leave a message."

Trying her cell phone, "Nora Buchanan, leave a message."

"Dammit, Red, where are you?"

"Looking for me?" She walked in the room and headed for the coffee.

He smiled, "As a matter of fact I was, what are you doing here?"

"Good morning to you too Commissioner, it seems my son spent the night here, after running away from home I might add, and your father decided it was best for him to stay here. I was too tired to argue so I thought I would come over to talk to you and him about this."

"Nora, let me talk to him, okay?"

"Bo…"

He held his hand up, "Look Nora, this whole thing is hard on him, he's been thrown around from house to house since the day we found out I was his father, and while you were gone, well, we talked about some things and I think I caused some of this anger, and I need to fix it."

"What do you mean you caused it? Bo, I'm still his mother…I still get a say in his life...or had you already planned how perfect your life would be without me in it...a nice little family you, Matthew and Gabrielle."

She never heard or saw Matthew walk down the stairs, "Why do you care…you didn't want me anyway. I heard you on the phone saying you didn't want a baby...so don't worry about it. I'm staying with dad and granpa."

"Matthew...Matthew…" she started to run after him.

Bo grabbed her, "Let him go."

"Let go of me."

"No, I've done enough letting go..." She looked at him, tears in her eyes. He pulled her into a warm embrace.

"Bo, what have I done?"

"It's gonna be okay Red, but it's gonna take time."

Her phone rang, "Nora Buchanan...okay, yes I'll be right there." She hung up the phone, "The mayor, I have to go."

"I'll take care of Matthew, and I'll let you know."

She wiped her tears, "Thanks, and I'm sorry." She headed for the door. "Bo, I wanted Matthew from the moment we thought about him, please make sure he knows that."

"I know and I will." he hesitated, "but what did he hear?"

She looked at the floor, "I said I didn't want a baby like this…"

"Like what?"

“I never thought we would be apart."

"Well, we don't have to be..."

He walked towards her, "Bo I have to go, I don't want to keep the mayor waiting." She refused to let the tears fall until she closed the door behind her. She couldn't fall back into his arms; she needed to move on for all their sakes.

"Dammit." He slammed his fist into the door.

"What's wrong dad?"

"Nothing champ, you and I need to talk."

"I'm not going back to mom's house."

"That's your house too you know."

"No it's not, it's her house, and I don't want to live there." He paused then looking up at his father, "Did you want me?"

"What?" he pulled his son into a tight embrace, "Of course I wanted you, more than you could ever know, and your mother wanted you too."

"But I heard her..."

"What did we tell you about eavesdropping, you overheard part of a conversation that you had no right listening to, now I can assure you, your mother wanted you and still wants you and loves you more than anything else in this world."

"Then why did she leave?"

"She left because she doesn't love me champ, not you."

"You said we were going to be a family when she came home,"

"I know, and I thought we could be, but...I don't think it's what your mother wants."

"But she was so happy when she read..." he was interrupted by the ringing of Bo's phone.

"Buchanan, yes Mayor I'll be right there." He looked down at Matthew, "Okay champ, I have to go to work, and we will talk more about this when I get home."

"Okay, but can I stay here."

Reluctantly, "I'll tell your mom you're staying here for a while, but Matthew…you are going to need to spend some time with your mother."

He shrugs his shoulders, "Fine."

Alexis woke the next morning deciding to jump into the shower before Kristina woke. She had to get to the office early if she was going to get things done before her trip to NY. She walked out of the shower twenty minutes later. She called her office and had all calls to her cell phone and home forwarded to the answering service. She cancelled what appointments she could and went to get Kristina dressed. She called Alice and told her that she would be dropping Kristina off early that morning and that Emily and Nikolas would be picking her up that afternoon.

She walked into her office an hour later and closed her door, closing herself off from every one. Three hours later there was a knock on her door. She sighed and picked up her phone, buzzing her assistant, "Kim...I don't want to be disturbed." "I'm sorry Ms. Davis, It's Mr. Ashton and he says he's not leaving until he sees you."

She places the receiver back down on the cradle and stood up. She ran her hand through her hair and took a deep breath before answering the door, "Ned...I'm really busy."

"I know you are but this can't wait." He leaned in, taking her off guard and kissed her.

She began to respond to his kiss, but quickly shook the feeling off, breaking their kiss, "What was that for?"

"I...I don't know a sudden urge came over me and..."

"And you decided to act on it. You know Ned; I really think you should leave."

"I'm not leaving until I tell you what I came here to tell you...and I won't be apologizing for the kiss either." He walked past her and sat down in front of her desk.

Alexis rolled her eyes and sat down behind her desk. Ned was about to tell her what he came to tell her, but her phone rang, "Okay...put him through....Judge Walker, could you hold on just a moment...yes thank you I’ll be just a moment, "Ned...I'm sorry but I have to take this call....privately."

Ned sighed and stood up, "Alexis we really need to talk, okay." Alexis nods and points to the phone. Ned turns and walks out the door.

*

Ned walks into his office a half hour later. He picks up the phone and dials Alexis' office. Her assistant answers, "Kim...It's Mr. Ashton again. Is she available now?"

"No I'm sorry Mr. Ashton she ended up having to go into court this afternoon. She did tell me though that she would give you a call later."

"Thank you Kim." Ned hangs up the phone and dials Skye's cell phone. He slams the phone down when he gets her answering machine. He picks the phone back up and calls Jax, "Jax...it's me. Do you have any idea where Skye is?..."Llanview why in the world would she go to Llanview?...Oh, right her mother. Thanks Jax."

Ned leans back in his chair and runs his hands over his face, "What are you up to Skye." Ned opens his desk drawer to find a pen. He was about to close the drawer when his eyes settled on a business card. He pulled it out and stared at it for a moment, "What the hell" he picked up the phone and dialed....

Bo walked to Nora's office after his meeting with the mayor. He needed to talk to her about Matthew. He was just about to knock on the door when his cell rang, "Buchanan"

"Bo, its Ned...Ned Ashton. I was wondering if you have a minute."

"Sure Ned, what's up?"

"How well do you know Skye Chandler Quatermaine?"

"What's she done now?"

Ned rolled his eyes. It felt strange talking to someone he barely knew about something like this but for some reason he knew he could trust Bo, "Well long story short, Skye and I were involved a while back and had casually picked up where we left off during the weeks Alexis was well, when I thought Alexis was dead. She realized that my feelings for Alexis never changed and decided to try and convince me that she was pregnant. I believed her...at first but something felt off. Then a friend of mine, actually Skye's ex husband informed me that she was lying, after coming to him to help her find a baby. Now she's on her way to Llanview and I was just wondering if I could call in a favor and have her watched. I don't trust her not to try and contact someone there."

The smile disappeared from Bo's face, what Skye was trying to do was hitting him way to close to home, "Ned, I'll keep an eye on her and let you know, I have to be in NYC Friday for a conference...but I'll get in touch with you as soon as I get back."

"I'm going to be in NY on Friday. We should get together after our meetings."

"That sounds like a plan, I could really use some time away from here." He looked in Nora's office and saw her taking the ring off that Matthew had given her, looking at the inscription and shaking her head, she then places the ring in her desk and continued to work. "I need to get used to the idea of moving on, and it's too hard to do while I'm here."

Ned looked at a picture of the four of them he had on the corner of his desk, "Moving on....I know exactly how you feel."

"So, I'll see you Friday at 5 at the Plaza?"

"Friday at five, sounds good. See you then." He hangs up the phone and flips on his computer; deciding to check his email before he left.

Bo knocks on the door. "Come in."

She doesn't look up as he enters. "Hey Nora, I wanted to talk to you about Matthew."

Ned scanned the emails in his inbox, clicking on the one from her, he sighed before reading it out loud, "Ned, I'm sorry we weren't able to talk earlier but I had an emergency that I had to deal with. I'll be going out of town this weekend on business and I'll be extremely busy up until then. Kristina is with Nikolas and Emily and she'll be staying there until I get home. They wanted to take her for the weekend so I agreed. We'll talk when I get home, I promise....Alexis."

"Yes?"

"Look, he needs some time to adjust to everything; I told him he could stay with us for a while."

"Us?"

"Well me, and Pa of course."

She nodded her head, "That's fine at least until I get back."

"Get back. Are you going somewhere?"

"I have a business trip in Philly and I thought I would take some time for myself this weekend, coming back from the dead isn't easy for me either you know."

"Of course," He nodded. He turned to go, "Nora..."

Distracted, "What Bo?"

"Nothing." He turned and left, there was nothing else to say it was time to move on.

Ned turns off his laptop; glancing once more at the photo on his desk. He picked up his jacket and walked out the door. Nothing between the two of them had ever come easy, and maybe she was right...maybe it was finally time to just move on.

TBC...