Maggie looked through a photo album of her parents' wedding and wondered if she had ever really known her father at all. All her life, she had tried to get his approval, but maybe it had never been possible at all. Maggie had looked into his eyes when he had been dying and had felt he would rather die than reveal the secret he'd been hiding. Andrew finally arrived with the envelope the bishop had left for Maggie. All that was inside was a lock of hair, which Maggie realized fit perfectly in Ian's mother's locket. Staring at the locket, she also realized the pattern on the locket was the same as on the tiles in the garden in her dreams. Ian took his father's jet without his permission and headed to New Orleans with Max and Maggie.
Alex called Todd at the Sun and told him she'd like to be tested as a donor for Starr. Todd went to visit her at the jail, and she asked him to pay for her legal fees in return for an exclusive on her story. Todd agreed and suggested Téa as a possible defense attorney. Todd took Téa to see Alex, and Téa believed she could win. If Asa were incompetent to stand trial for obstruction of justice, he couldn't be competent to be a witness to Carlo's murder.
Since Mortimer Bern couldn't be found, and there was no tape of Alex's confession to Andy, Téa was confident she could get Alex off. Todd was happy that he had Alex's exclusive story and Kevin's girlfriend working for him. At least he was happy until he received a call from Blair, telling him that Starr was back in the hospital in intensive care.
Dorian woke up alone in her hotel room but received a bunch of violets and a note to call Mel the next time she was in town. Dorian rushed back to Llanview to convince Clint to offer Mel a job with the Banner. Clint and Kevin both liked the idea of hiring Mel, but when Viki learned it had been Dorian's idea, she refused to even consider it.
Starr was back in the hospital and running a very high fever. Todd and Blair, who were very worried, stayed outside in the waiting room to be out of the doctor's way. Marty walked out to tell them that Starr would probably need a bone marrow donor much sooner than had been anticipated. The doctor asked to talk to Blair and Patrick alone, which did not make Todd very happy. First, the doctor would like permission to test Blair's baby as a possible donor for Starr. If the baby were a match, then they would need to consider delivering the baby early. Patrick agreed to the test but was completely against delivering his son early, despite the doctor's reassurances that there would be very little risk.
Nora arrived at home, flopped on the bed, and complained she was tired and her period was late. They were soon considering the possibility that Nora might be pregnant. Bo rushed out to pick up a pregnancy test along with a pizza. Nora took the test, and it was negative. They were both relieved and disappointed by the result.
In New Orleans, Max and Ian tried to be civil to each other so as not to upset Maggie. Since Ian couldn't reach the caretaker with the key to his mother's estate, they agreed to go to a restaurant Ian knew to have dinner while they waited. While at the restaurant, a fortune-teller stopped by their table and told Maggie her suffering had not been in vain because she was on the brink of a great discovery.
At the Banner, Kevin and Clint discussed Viki's plans to attend John Carpenter's funeral in Baltimore. Clint said that although Viki hadn't been close to the bishop, he was Sloan's brother. Also, considering his connections in Llanview, the Banner should cover the funeral. Clint asked Kevin if he wanted the assignment. Kevin was not exactly enthralled by covering the soft news story, but it would not be fair for Cassie to cover her husband's uncle's funeral, so Kevin agreed to hitch a ride with his mother. Kevin saw it as an opportunity to put a bug in Viki's ear about hiring Mel. Clint said, "Why wait?" and they set off for Viki's office to double-team her.
For her part, Viki was concerned about Mel Hayes's drinking problem. Kevin pointed out that the Pulitzer Prize winner had an excellent track record, dating back to his coverage of the Vietnam War, and just a few months earlier, Mel had disguised himself as a migrant worker and exposed human "coyotes" who preyed on Mexican immigrants in California. Kevin said Mel had made him feel like he had been there in the dark with him. "Which is about where Mel is now," Viki replied. They were running a newspaper, she reminded them both, not a rehab.
Kevin asked if his mother would be reluctant to hire Woodward and Bernstein if they were drunks. Drinking among press members was a time-honored tradition. Kevin was enthusiastic about Mel and said he could learn more from the investigate reporter than any journalism school. "Or your parents?" Viki asked archly and then agreed to give Mel an interview, provided Dorian was kept totally out of the loop. They agreed to the deal.
Back at Clint's office, Clint and Kevin found Dorian waiting for them. They told her Mel had been a hard sell for Viki, but they had managed to get his foot into the door. Viki had consented to meeting with him, but Kevin wondered if Mel could pull himself together. Dorian said she would call him, and Clint handed her the phone. A bearded, sleepy, and obviously hungover Mel Hayes answered and did not seem to process at first who Dorian was and what the call was about.
Mel casually said he would be glad to meet Clint and hung up, anxious to sleep off the results of the prior night's drinking. Dorian made excuses about a bad connection. Kevin and Clint were certain that Mel was hungover. She assured them that Mel had been coherent and had said he had been up for hours. They challenged how she would know that if the connection were bad.
Dorian improvised that the connection had been in and out and offered to call Mel again. At first, Mel was not even keeping up his end of the conversation, but he agreed to speak to Clint if she was part of the situation, even in an indirect way. Clint and Mel, it turned out, were old drinking buddies. They recalled the night LBJ had decided not to run for reelection in 1968, and Clint had spent the night singing "The Eyes of Texas" over and over in a San Juan bar until Mel's ears had bled.
Clint reminded Mel that the last time Clint had seen him, Mel had been hanging from a helicopter about ten feet off the ground above the Secretary of State's garden party. Clint graciously invited Mel to go to Llanview. Mel barked back at Clint, but Clint just asked if he had called at a bad time. Mel said he could use a few gallons of coffee, but he would still be a jerk. Clint thought Mel might like a change of scenery. He was sorry to hear about Mel's wife's passing and remembered Mel speaking of her often while they had been in San Juan.
Clint encouraged Mel to visit Llanview to meet Clint's editor-in-chief. Mel asked if that was Clint's wife. Ex-wife, Clint corrected, but he explained that they were friendly. Mel was not sure he wanted to do a column, and Cllint assured Mel that what Clint wanted was an investigative reporter. Mel agreed to meet with Clint and Viki the next day, provided that he had the last say on all copy.
Dorian assured Clint and Kevin that they would not regret hiring Mel. When she left, Kevin said he suspected they were in big trouble, just by the grin on Dorian's face, and maybe his mom had been right to have reservations about the setup. The good news was that Mel was a good reporter; the bad news was Dorian was the agent. He worried she would control Mel. Clint said that Mel was the original loose cannon, and that was one reason he was so good at his job. They agreed that the real roadblock would be getting Viki to hire Mel.
Patrick finally gave Marty some insight into his past and his relationship with his family. He had not slept at all, thinking about it. Marty said that since she was an orphan, she had been hoping to be a part of his family. "A cottage full of Thornharts. I am afraid that will have to stay a dream," he said.
Patrick confided in Marty a story about his beautiful red-headed sister, whom he had adored. She had gotten herself pregnant by a rich Englishman. She had been abandoned and had not wanted to go forward with the pregnancy. Swearing Patrick to secrecy, she had convinced him to accompany her to London, where she could have a legal abortion without their parents knowledge. There, the National Health Program butchered her. She hemorrhaged to death a night after in a seedy English hotel room. The ambulance company had said there was nothing that could be done.
Patrick said he had gone back to Ireland and confessed what had happened to his parents. They had since refused to forgive him. That was why he was reluctant to allow the doctors to do tests on his son. The vision of his sister covered in blood and dying from a "simple procedure" haunted him. Marty tried to reassure him and explained that the doctors would just do a simple blood test on the umbilical cord, and if it was a match, when his son was born, it could be harvested and transplanted to Starr's bone marrow. It the fetus showed any sign of distress, the procedure would be halted.
Patrick apologized for unburdening himself. Marty wanted to know about his life and said he was stuck with her. Patrick said he did not want to be present at the testing. Marty let him know she would hang in there, and Patrick asked her to tell him when she was hurting. He wanted to shoulder some of the burden he put on her. They hugged, and Patrick left.
At the hospital, Starr's doctor discussed the procedure with Todd and Blair. She had done it many times, and the baby would be fine. Blair would be sedated. If they got the blood sample, they would know by the next day if it matched. Todd was anxious to get started and told the doctor to get to it. She reminded him that she had to see if an operating room was available.
After the doctor left, Todd confided to Blair that he was worried that Starr would take a turn for the worse. Blair tried to comfort him with the news that their daughter's fever had gone down, and she was doing better. Todd reminded her that that had happened before, and she could become sicker again. Blair urged him to take one step at a time.
Todd was bothered by the fact that he didn't have any control over the situation. Blair said she didn't like it either, but paralysis was not a luxury she could afford at that moment. She needed Todd to see her through it, even if he had to fake it. She needed him, the baby needed him, and his daughter needed him most of all.
After Blair left, Patrick showed up at the hospital, and he and Todd argued. Todd told him, "You're too late to talk Blair out of it, Paddy, my lad." Patrick took offense at Todd's imitation of an Irish dialect and called him a head-butting "amadon." Todd wanted to know if that was like an idiot. Patrick confirmed it was, and Todd said he was tired of tearing wings off flies. Patrick replied that "this fly will fight back," and Todd asked if Patrick intended to hack him up with a poem.
Todd did not like Patrick, and that was why he was in his face -- because his little girl could die, and Patrick was in the middle of it. Patrick did not have any problem with Blair or Starr, but his son needed someone to stand up for him. Todd got nasty and said that Marty could not be taking the situation well -- Blair having Patrick's baby. Todd guessed Marty wouldn't mind if that needle were stuck a little too close this way or that.
Patrick started to leave and then turned back around and asked how dark it got in Todd's dismal soul. Todd replied he did not want to know how dark his soul was. Patrick said he was willing to cooperate with Starr's treatment as long as his son was unharmed. Todd did not give a fig about cooperating. Blair would do whatever was necessary for Starr. Marty burst into the waiting room and asked both of them to go with her. There was a problem in the operating room.
Maggie, Ian, and Max arrived at Eleanor's house. The caretaker, Bertram, led them to the garden, which was in considerable disrepair. He apologized that it was not the way it had been in the old days. Maggie was nervous at what she might find out. The fortune-teller had known about her father's death and had also said there would be an exciting discovery made. Max held her hand and told her he wanted to share whatever lay in store.
The smell of jasmine and honeysuckle reminded Maggie of her dream. She also remembered the smell of a mimosa. Ian told her she had to have been there before because the tree had been chopped down a long time before. They looked at the table and recalled tea having been served there. The tile on the patio matched the one on the locket and the one in Maggie's dream. She knew she had been there before.
An old woman entered the garden, led in by Bertram. She mistook Maggie for Eleanor. She was Eleanor's nanny, and she recognized Ian. Ian told her that the woman beside him was Maggie Carpenter. She said, "Yes, of course." She asked Maggie to sit beside her and told them all that since Eleanor was dead, she no longer lived in the house. She had loved the lady very much.
Ian showed the elderly woman, Hannah, the locket. He explained the details of his mother's death and the bishop's involvement with the locket, how he had kept it for a long time, and when he had returned it, Ian had been disappointed to find nothing inside it. His mother had always said the locket would protect him. Maggie told Hannah that after her father had died, he had left her an envelope with only a lock of dark hair in it. It seemed to fit perfectly inside the locket. Then there was the dream and the tile on the ground with a design that matched the one on the locket.
Ian thought that Hannah might know the truth that Eleanor and the bishop were no longer alive to tell them. She said she did, but if she told him, it would change his life forever.
Maggie and Ian pried open the patio tile and discovered a metal box. Maggie was too nervous to look into the box. Ian took out an envelope addressed, "To My Children."
Eleanor's nanny said she had always known they'd be standing there together someday, and she had hoped she'd be around to see it. She said she'd been waiting for that moment for their whole lives. Maggie said they would listen to all she had to say with an open mind. Ian looked at the letter, addressed "to my children." He asked, "Whose children, and what does it mean?" She said, "Before I tell you that, I want to tell you a story."
Hannah told them that Eleanor, while traveling in Europe, had met Guy Armitage. They had not been in love, but Eleanor had thought they had been. She had known that marrying Guy would be very good for her family's dwindling fortune. When Guy had proposed, she had said yes. She had gone back to America to plan for the wedding and had stopped in Boston to visit family on the way back to New Orleans. There, she had met and fallen in true, deep love with John Carpenter, a divinity student.
Unfortunately, she had already been engaged and had had to go through with her marriage to Guy. Once they had been married, she had realized he was not the man she had thought he was. He had only been interested in her before she had married him. Once he'd had her, he'd lost interest. He had gone away on business trips frequently. It was during one of his absences that Eleanor had realized that she had been pregnant. Because of the timing, there had been no doubt about who the father was. She had told no one until John had shown up at her house.
It had been impossible to keep it a secret from John. He had still been in love with her. He had begged her to return to Boston with him, but she had been unable. John had left, bereft. He had been devastated about having another man raise his child. During her pregnancy, she had made a discovery -- and a decision that would haunt all of their lives forever. She had been pregnant with twins.
Hannah told Maggie, Ian, and Max that Eleanor had made sure that only two people were present during the birth -- her doctor and her nanny. She had held the two babies for only an afternoon. She had kept the boy, because she had known that Guy would want a male heir, and she had thought he might love a son more than a daughter. The baby girl she had sent back to Boston with her true love, to live the life that she herself could only dream about. She had always had a feeling that her two children would meet again as adults and return to the garden, which was why she had written them the letter.
Maggie stood up and walked over to Ian. She said, "You're my brother." Max walked over and said, "You're her brother?" Ian said that was why his mother had thought the locket would protect him -- because it broke the tie between him and Guy. Max mentioned that Guy could disinherit Ian.
He asked Eleanor's nanny if Guy knew about everything, and she said that she didn't know how he could know. Maggie asked her if the woman she had known as her mother had known the truth. It turned out that John had told her the whole story before he had even asked her to marry him, and she had been glad to raise Maggie as her own.
Maggie opened the letter. Eleanor told them that she was writing soon after the day in the garden. It had been a beautiful day they'd had in the garden. She hoped they would someday find each other and grow old and close together. In the letter, she told Ian that she was sorry that John, who should have been his father, hadn't raised him. She told Maggie that she was glad that Maggie was so happy with her father and his wife. She hoped they would forgive and understand what she'd had to do, and she hoped they would love each other always. Maggie and Ian hugged.
Hank met Rachel for lunch at Carlotta's diner. He told her that he was there in peace. She smiled and told him that he could be charming when he was not in the courtroom. He said that he had made a mistake. He asked her for the special of the day, with a truce on the side. Carlotta told him that he'd get both things from her but not from Antonio.
Nora entered. She had a dizzy spell and almost fainted. Rachel and Hank were worried. Antonio entered. He was also concerned. Nora said she was okay. Hank told her to see a doctor, and she said she would. They discussed a surprise party that they were planning for Bo.
Nora left and headed to her office. Hank congratulated Antonio for clearing his name. He said he was behind him and would help any way he could. Rachel talked to Hank about him trying to reach out to R.J. She told him that it would take time for them to work out the years of trouble between them. She told him how much his help had meant to her during her recovery from being a drug addict. She said R.J. probably appreciated all his help, too.
Téa entered and told Hank that she was representing Alex. Hank said Alex didn't need a lawyer to get out of jail; she needed a chainsaw. Téa told Hank to drop the charges because he didn't have a credible witness. She said she'd see him in court and walked out of the diner. Hank went to talk to Bo about Alex's case. Andy entered and asked what Hank had wanted, and he told her that he wanted to help. Antonio said the next time he stood in front of a judge, he'd be called "counselor."
At the hospital, Marty asked Todd if Blair had any allergies to medicine. He said he didn't know and that she should call Dorian and ask her. She told him that Blair was having an allergic reaction. Patrick was worried about his son, and Todd was freaking out about Starr. He said that Patrick didn't care about Starr or Blair. Patrick said that Todd cared about no one but himself.
Marty tried to call Dorian about Blair's medical background but could not reach her. She told Patrick and Todd that Blair and the baby were in the best possible care. In the operating room, Blair was having trouble breathing and went into shock. The baby's heart rate went up, and they prepared for an emergency C-section. The baby's heart rate returned to normal, so they didn't need to deliver him early after all. Blair thanked them for helping. The doctor walked out and told them that Blair and the baby were both fine, and they would send the blood to be tested for compatibility.
Todd went to see Blair. She was asleep. Todd remembered the wedding and how happy they had been. He remembered breaking the mirror, and she had said it had been bad luck. He had thought it was a silly superstition back then. He reached out and touched her hair, waking her. She told him how scared she had been, and he told her there was nothing to worry about.
Blair fell back to sleep. Todd stayed in her room and watched her. Patrick asked Marty if they would be tied to Todd forever. He said he was tired of Todd. Marty told him to try to stay away from Todd. He told her that he would visit Blair after Todd left.
When Todd left, Patrick went in to see Blair. He thanked her for pulling through. She said she hadn't done it all. Todd started to reenter the room, but stopped when he saw Patrick. They didn't know he was there, but he heard their whole conversation.
Patrick told Blair that Todd had been making a scene and causing trouble while she had been in the operating room. She asked what kind of trouble, and he said, "The usual rubbish." She told him that Todd would never hurt their baby. Patrick asked if he had been giving her any trouble. She said Todd was very good to her.
Blair said that Todd was afraid. Patrick said that Todd was a jackass. Patrick said he wanted Starr to be happy for his son's sake. She asked Patrick what he wished for. He said he wanted Marty to be happy because she was the most important part of his life, and she always would be.
"You're my brother," Maggie said again to Ian. Max thought that everything that had happened finally made some sort of strange sense. Maggie had felt that when her father had died, she was all alone, but... "Now we have each other," Ian reassured her, holding her hand. He had known that Maggie would be an important part of his life the day he had met her, but he had never imagined she would end up being his sister. Maggie understood her father's actions a lot more -- his need to control and his expectations -- but she couldn't understand how Eleanor could have given her away.
Hannah explained that Eleanor had wanted her to grow up in a house full of love. She had thought John could give her that and she had known Guy Armitage wouldn't. The bishop hadn't given her love, Maggie insisted. In fact, she had never really known him at all. She remembered thinking that when her father was gone, she would feel free, but since he was gone, she felt she needed him more than ever. She turned to Max, and they hugged.
It wasn't until John had taken Maggie to New Orleans that he had learned of Ian's existence, Hannah explained. The bishop had raged when he had learned the truth, but by then, the secret had been too deep to do anything to change it. They weren't secrets, they were lies, and they had taken over everything, Maggie said. The secrets had done more harm than good, Ian agreed. Eleanor had paid dearly, Hannah told them; she had lost her true love, she had given up one child, and she had spent the rest of her life, trying to protect the other one. Hannah asked them not to hate Eleanor for the choices that she had made.
Ian wondered whose hair was in the locket, his or Maggie's. It was actually both of theirs, Hannah told them. Eleanor had taken a lock of Ian's hair and a lock of Maggie's hair, tied them together, and put them in the locket so they would always be together, close to her heart.
Back in Llanview, Andrew was on the phone, making some arrangements for the bishop's funeral. Cassie entered; she had just returned from Statesville prison and was glad to be back. It was not that she didn't think their work with prisoners' families was good -- it was just hard. That day, she had driven the mother and daughter of one of the prisoners to Statesville to see her. It had been very sad.
The prisoner, Diana, had always been something of a wild child, but she had met a man, settled down, and gotten married. "What went wrong?" Andrew asked. Diana hadn't been able to keep up the charade of good wife and mother and had gone back to hanging around with her old friends and returning home late or not at all. She had finally run away with a man, and when the husband had caught up with them in a motel, the boyfriend had stabbed Diana's husband to death in front of her. They had run, but the police had caught them, and Diana was in prison as an accessory to murder.
When visiting hours had ended, they'd had to pry the little girl off her mother. Cassie, upset, said she didn't think Diana realized how many lives she had destroyed. "How could a woman do this to the people that she says she loves more than anything else in this world?" Cassie wondered, "How can she live with herself?" Cassie, crying, wondered why the story was getting to her so much. Andrew thought he had the answer to that.
"How much of yourself do you see in that story?" Andrew asked. They were both married women with a small child who had met an attractive man who was really no good for them. Cassie denied any connection between her situation and Diana's. Andrew made Cassie look at him and insisted that he knew her and what she was going through. "Evidently you don't," Cassie replied.
The phone rang. It was Nora reminding them about Bo's birthday party that night. Andrew told Nora that they would be there. Cassie was surprised that they were going, since his uncle had just died, and Andrew was not exactly happy with his wife at that moment. He was profoundly happy with his wife, Andrew said; he just hoped she was happy with him. She was happy with him, Cassie insisted.
R.J. was sitting at a table at Club Indigo when Rachel arrived with some "incredible" news: Hank had just admitted, in public and without a gun to his head, that he had been wrong. "Election year already?" R.J. asked sarcastically. It had been for real, Rachel insisted. Not only had he admitted he was wrong, but he had also apologized to Antonio. R.J. told Rachel not to be too impressed; Hank had tried the same thing with him the other night, and R.J. wasn't buying it. "Why can't you give my father a break?" Rachel asked.
Rachel wondered what would happen if R.J. were wrong, and Hank were really trying to set things straight. Whatever "Holy Hank" said and did was done solely for himself, R.J. replied. Hank was worried that R.J. was going to get Rachel into trouble, or he was going to have to decide between his friends and helping his "bad brother" if R.J. didn't straighten out. Two gentlemen arrived and interrupted their conversation. Rachel thought she should go, but R.J. told her to stay and welcomed the two men to his club.
R.J. broke out a bottle of champagne and invited the men to have a seat at a table. One of the men noticed Rachel standing nearby and wondered who she was. R.J. waved at Rachel to go over to the table to say hello. One of the men, Gabriel, was one of R.J.'s lawyers/booking agents, and the other man was a musician. R.J. wanted him to play in the club -- he had big plans for Club Indigo and wanted to start hiring big-name acts.
The men asked Rachel's opinion of whether R.J. could pull off his big new plans for the club. She tried to avoid answering at first but then supported R.J. She said that if R.J. said he would turn Club Indigo into a famous jazz club, then he would do it. The men agreed to help R.J. advertise and get good acts for the club. Rachel suggested that they have a jazz festival to get things started in the right direction. They liked the idea and agreed to help. They left, and R.J. was happy everything had gone so well.
Hank burst into Bo's office, asking if everyone in town had lost their collective minds. Hank didn't even give Bo a chance to guess what he was talking about before telling him that Alex had retained Téa as her lawyer. Hank thought the whole thing was a nightmare, but Bo looked amused by the idea. Bo assured him that he had an airtight case, Alex had confessed, and there were tons of witnesses to her abduction of Andy. Hank asked Bo how Nora had been feeling and then told him about Nora almost fainting at the diner earlier. Bo looked worried but thought what Nora could really use would be a vacation after all they'd been through the past year. Bo was going to see if he could talk Nora into taking things a little easier.
Bo was on the phone when Nora entered his office and started kissing him. Bo quickly hung up and asked her to kiss him again. He told her the news that Alex had hired Téa to defend her, which didn't bother Nora at all. Instead, she asked him to take her out to dinner that night. He reached for the phone to order a pizza, but she stopped him and claimed she had a craving for flan. She finally convinced Bo, and they left.
Dorian entered the diner and asked Carlotta for help. Carlotta was decorating the place with flowers and balloons in preparation for Bo's birthday party. Dorian explained that her maid had the flu, and her house was an absolute shambles. She was expecting an important visitor and desperately needed Carlotta's help. Carlotta didn't look too eager to do it and asked what his name was.
Dorian asked how Carlotta had known it was a man. He was an award-winning journalist, Dorian revealed, and she raved about his wonderful qualities. Carlotta couldn't help Dorian out; she was a businesswoman, and she was far too busy at the diner to clean Dorian's house. Carlotta instead offered to call around and see if she could find someone else to help Dorian out. Dorian thanked her and left.
At the Palace Hotel, Asa was busy looking at the stock figures in the paper when Renee reminded him that it was Bo's birthday. Renee told Asa that he was taking her to Bo's surprise birthday party, but he refused and offered to have his driver drop her off instead. It would be "a cold day in hell" before he celebrated anything with his ungrateful son, Bo. Renee finally convinced him to go by pointing out that if he didn't show up, it would look like he was running away. Never one to back down, Asa agreed to go, but he wouldn't be buying Bo a present.
Carlotta, still trying to get everything ready, asked Cristian and his college friend Layne to put up a banner. Layne was glad that Cristian wasn't mad with her anymore. Rachel and Andy were sitting at the counter, watching Antonio cook, when Téa walked in. Next, Hank arrived, carrying some cases of soda and beer. Marty and Patrick arrived, and Carlotta dragged Marty away to help her.
Cassie and Andrew arrived next and started telling Patrick about the program they were setting up to help prisoners' families. As they were talking, Kevin walked in and stared at Cassie for a moment before walking over and kissing Téa as Cassie watched jealously. They all hid and yelled surprise when Bo and Nora got there.
Everyone applauded, and Bo tried to duck back out the door. Drew grabbed him and told him not to even think about it. Nora was unbelievable, Bo said as he kissed her. Hank broke it up to give Bo his own happy birthday wishes. Everyone called for a speech from Bo. "You're all under arrest," Bo joked.
Bo said it had been quite a year, and he had learned that life didn't mean a whole lot without family and friends. Right after Bo finished his speech, Renee and Asa arrived, and Antonio glared at Asa from across the room. Asa walked over to Bo, but instead of wishing him happy birthday, he just asked if Bo was working on finding where Carlo had stashed his 30 million dollars. Bo sarcastically thanked Asa for his birthday wishes and walked away.
Next, Asa went over to pick a fight with Antonio, but Antonio refused to get involved and claimed the music was too loud, and he couldn't hear a word Asa was saying. Asa gave up, walked away, and left. Bo and Nora started dancing, and everyone joined in, Andy and Antonio, Kevin and Téa, and Andrew and Cassie. Hank asked Carlotta to dance, and she accepted. Kevin and Cassie watched each other from across the room.
