THE PAST IS ALWAYS THERE - Todd & Blair

I picked this little scene because it shows Todd trying to tell Blair about surviving and how he looks at his past. He feels he can never put it behind him and will always effect him in everything he does. I don’t know that she really understood him as she had her own agenda. Todd is back from the dead. After being shot in Ireland he returns home to find his wife and Patrick rolling around the Penthouse floor. He shuts down to her. At this point in the story Blair is totally frustrated and angry because she just found out Todd was back in town and saw Marty and Patrick first before he came home to her. She goes to tell this to Vicki and she gives Blair the keys to her mountain cabin to get away by herself for a little while. When Todd comes looking for her he takes off for the cabin in a panic that Blair might find some evidence of his being there before when he kidnaped Starr. After Todd gets there, making sure the place is wiped clean of clues they then attempt to talk.

BLAIR: You see that, right over there, that mountain peak, right there? (pointing) Right there.

TODD: Yeah.

BLAIR: Do you remember last year right before we got married you flew me over Llantano Mountain and you pointed out, you said that, that was our future. You promised that someday we would own that land and we would build a dream house there. Do you remember that?

TODD: Why are you telling me all this? (leaning against cabin with his arms crossed)

BLAIR: Todd, when I thought that you had died, the idea of someone else living there on that land, I didn’t like it, so I bought it. (Todd reacts surprised) Yep, if I couldn’t keep you alive, well I was going to keep our dream alive, for all time. (crosses to him, puts her hand on his arm and her head on his shoulder) Todd, why can’t you see how much you mean to me. How much you’ve always, always meant to me. I swear to you Todd that no one, that nothing could ever change that. Not even your death. (She smooths his hair)

TODD: (he crosses away from her with his back to her) I don’t know what to tell you.

BLAIR: I just wanted you tell me what....what you thought of what I just said.

TODD: (Stands with his back to her) I don’t know what I think! I don’t know what I think what I feel, I don’t know anything. Blair you probably know me better than anybody and you know trusting people is not what I’m best at. And almost being killed that really takes it out of you. Just grinds the good right outta you. At least that’s what it did to me. Cause you gotta be strong to survive, and if you gotta be strong you gotta stay focused and not on warm fuzzy garbage but strong and focused on surviving. And you’re not gonna understand this but I wanted to survive so that I could tick off my old man, not, not...not that Victor Lord, but the guy who raised me. Cause he was there, he was standing over the bed and I was dying and he was saying, look at you, you little punk, I knew this is how you’d end up. You just don’t have what it takes.

BLAIR: Well, I don’t understand. You said you were concentrating on me when you were trying to recover. How did Peter Manning get there?

TODD: (matter of fact) Same as always.......uninvited. (turns around to her) Blair, you know, I saw you when I wanted to, sometimes, but he was always there, every time I let my guard down.

BLAIR: I’m so sorry. (Todd sighs) I just wish that I had been there to help you. Come on Todd all that is, it’s..it’s behind you, you’re home now....

TODD: (cuts her off) Not really.

BLAIR: What do you mean?

TODD: Stuff stays with me! The past is always there. I trip over it sometimes, beat myself up about it, but the past is always there. I don’t want it there, but it’s there and I can’t get away from it, sometimes I think I never will.

BLAIR: I can help you Todd. Come on, you know me, I never turn away from a good challenge. Come on, you told me it that it wasn’t going to be easy being married to you and I never promised that it was going to be easy being married to me. (she touches his face) What do you say? Come on let’s go home. Come on. (she walks away, he stands for a second & follows)