Chapter Seven: Just Like Old Times
Todd's old offices at the Sun, now Blair's, around dinner time
Blair stood at her desk, her back to the door, alternately scribbling furiously and tossing papers in the trash. As she heard a noise at the door, she spoke without turning. "Mike," she snapped, "I told you I didn't want to be disturbed!"
"It's not Mike," said a voice behind her dryly.
Blair whirled around to see Todd standing in the doorway holding several brown paper bags in his arms. She crossed her arms and leaned back, half-perched on the desk. "What are you doing here, Todd?" she asked warily.
Todd handed the bags to Blair wordlessly, a slight grimace on his face. She took them, confused, until she opened one of the bags and smelled the escaping steam. "Vegetable dumplings!" Blair exclaimed, grinning at Todd. "You must be in a good mood, Todd; vegetable dumplings for dinner, chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. What'd you do today?"
"Fired a bunch of people -- kinda got my juices flowing," Todd said, sitting down on the couch in the office. "You said earlier you had a big story brewing," he shrugged, "I figured you'd be pulling a late night at the office, so--" He nodded towards the dumplings.
Blair smiled at him and pried open the lid of the round container. Todd watched in a kind of fascination as she quickly but delicately devoured the entire container of dumplings. She noticed him staring. "What?," she demanded, tossing a napkin at him. "Haven't you ever seen anyone eat before?"
"Yeah, but -- not like that," he said, shaking his head.
"You are just so funny, Todd." She held out the container towards him. "Want some?"
Todd made a disgusted face accompanied by a rude noise. "You know I hate those things, Blair. Look, toss me one of those bags; there's some eggrolls in there somewhere."
Blair tossed Todd the brown paper bag, rolling her eyes. For a few moments, they were companionably silent as Todd munched on the eggrolls, and Blair went back to the sheaf of papers she had been looking over when Todd came in.
Todd popped the last bite of duck-sauce covered eggroll into his mouth, wiping his greasy hands on a napkin. "Whatcha workin' on?" he asked, somewhat indistinctly .
"Why?" Blair questioned, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "'Cause, Todd, this is my paper complete with my headlines and my executive decisions. And I am warning you, if you even try to--" She broke off as Todd stood up, walking towards her.
"Blair, I was just asking! Geez," he muttered, "someone's touchy."
"With good reason," she responded, crossing her arms. "Look who's asking the questions."
Todd considered her for a minute. "Okay, so maybe you have a point," he conceded. "But, I'm serious, Blair, I'm not gonna try to take the Sun away from you. I owe you that much, I know that."
"You owe me at least that much," she said grudgingly. She looked at him with narrowed eyes, then sighed. "I'm working on a story about the commissioner. Turns out he's not as squeaky clean as he'd like everyone to think."
"Bo??" Todd asked, a wide smile crossing his face as he almost chortled with glee. He held out his hand, gesturing towards Blair's write-up. "Gimmee!" he demanded.
"Not Bo, John Sykes. He took over for Bo during the whole Georgie Phillips mess, remember?" Blair said, handing him the template for the article.
"What, Big Daddy didn't buy little Bo Blue his job back yet?" Todd questioned. Not waiting for Blair to answer, he began to paw through the pages. After looking at them, he lifted his head to look at Blair. "This isn't so bad," he said.
"High praise, indeed, coming from the master," Blair smirked sarcastically, moving to snatch the papers away from him.
"It could be better. Look," he laid the sheets out on her desk and motioned her to join him, "move this here," he shifted two of the sheets, grabbing a red marker and crossing out sections with a bold hand, "and cut this. And lead with this part, it's got all the juicy crap. They'll eat it up. Paste in a picture of Sykes in his pristine LPD uniform, and stick on this headline, and it'll sell like, well, like one of my articles did." He stood up, pleased with himself and with the feeling of being back where he had always belonged, in the offices at the Sun and by Blair's side.
Blair reached over to snatch the red pen out of his hand, and looked at what he had done a frown line crossing her forehead. She rearranged two of the sheets and made a couple of notations. "There," she announced, neither looking at him not acknowledging his help, "we'll run that in tomorrow's special edition." Turning to Todd, she laughed devilishly. "Sykes is gonna be out of a job so fast! Todd, I've really missed. . . " Suddenly she noticed both the expression on his face and the fact that his face was only inches from hers.
He cleared his throat softly, his eyes gone deep. "Missed what?" he whispered, barely breathing as he felt Blair so close her breath was on his cheek.
She stood, frozen for a long moment, before taking a step back, and pasting a quick smile on her face. "Missed working with you, Todd. We always did make a good team," she said, business-like.
"Yeah. We always did." The room was full of an uncomfortable silence, until Todd broke it by clearing his throat once again. "Look, Blair, there's something I've gotta say."
"Todd. . ."
"No, just let me say this, okay?" Todd waited until she gave a slight shrug as if to say 'go on'. He took a deep breath, and walked over to the windows, looking out at the night sky. It's darkness was infinitely easier to face than Blair's so familiar green eyes. "When I, when I was away, I told you it was like I was looking for something, you know? Well, I guess I was looking in my sleep, too, when I slept, 'cause I would have these dreams. And I would never really remember them when I woke up; I would just remember -- wanting something that was just out of my reach. Like anything's ever been out of my reach, right?" He grinned slightly, looking at her for a moment, then turned back to the window. "And -- there was one other thing I would remember. I would see these faces when I woke up. Shorty's face. And yours, Blair. Your face."
"What are you saying, Todd?" Blair whispered, crossing her arms tightly across her chest, as if protecting herself from something that she hadn't seen coming, not even a little bit.
Todd turned, facing Blair, looking her fully in the eyes. "I don't know what I'm saying, Blair. I'm just-- I just needed you to know that." He held her gaze with his a moment longer, then without saying another word, grabbed his coat and left abruptly.
Blair watched him go, speechless for once in her life, and collapsed in the chair behind her desk. "Oh my God," she whispered, laying her hot cheek against the cool wood. "What is going on?"
