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Crisis & Catharsis -- Part II   Bo set his cup of coffee on the table, untouched. He and Paige had found a small table in a deserted part of the cafeteria. Paige placed her cup on the table and slid into the chair opposite him, waiting for him to join her. She knew this was not going to be pleasant. Bo took a couple deep breaths before pulling back the chair and taking a seat.   He spoke calmly and deliberately. “Okay, so you’ve known Nora is sick in your capacity as a doctor?”   “Yes.”   “Which means, knowing Nora, she swore you to secrecy.”   “Yes.”   Bo took another deep breath. “And in your capacity as my… um… well, the person I’m seeing right now… You didn’t feel it necessary to tell me?”   Paige was troubled by his inability to define their relationship. “Bo, I…”   “You what, Paige? Didn’t think it was any of my business? Didn’t want me to know?”   “Bo, you know doctor/patient confidentiality is the law. Of course I thought you should know but it wasn’t my call.”   Bo looked right through her. “So all this time, you’ve been spending time with me and Matthew, knowing that his mother is sick, knowing he may have to come live with me. Was that part of your plan?”   Paige was startled by the tone of his voice. “Plan?”   “Yes, you could move in with me and we could be a happy little family. With Nora out of the picture, you could be Matthew’s mother. I see how you look at him and I know how much you want a child.”   “Bo, that’s ridiculous. Matthew has a mother…”   Bo's patience snapped. “Yes, he does! And you knew his mother could be in danger and you didn’t think it was necessary to alert me. Instead, you played the happy stepmother…”   Paige stood suddenly. “I think you should stop right there, Bo. I am not Matthew’s stepmother and I was not ‘getting close’ to him so I could take over for Nora. That little boy needs support right now. His mother is in the hospital and you throwing wild accusations isn’t helping anyone.”   “I wouldn’t need to throw accusations if I had some facts to go on here.”   “You need to take a breath, Bo. You are not going to do Matthew any good if you are this upset. He needs a steadying influence right now, so get a hold of yourself.”   “How can I be that if I don’t know what I’m dealing with? I feel so helpless. Nora told Michael not to allow me in her room. She doesn’t want to even see me.”   Paige sat down across from Bo, smiling as she reached for his arm. “I think that was just a reaction to the circumstance. She’s scared too, you know. Why don’t you pull yourself together and I’ll go talk to her and see if she what I can do.”   “Thanks. Look, tell her I just want to help. I’ll do anything to make this better. Matthew needs his mother.”   Paige nodded with a smile. “I know that and Nora knows it too. I’ll be back in a little bit.”   Paige got up and left. Bo stared at the blank wall, wondering how this had happened and he hadn’t seen it coming. He laughed sarcastically at himself. “Because you didn’t want to see it, you jerk,” he said softly in the empty room.   Matthew had worn himself out with his tears and was sleeping in his mother’s arms. Nora was dozing too, enjoying the feel of her son cuddling with her. Paige entered the room and stood quietly at the foot of Nora’s bed, checking her chart. Nora’s eyes fluttered open as she felt someone in the room. She smiled softly when she saw Paige. “Hi. How does it look?”   Paige moved closer and spoke softly, not wanting to disturb Matthew. “How are you feeling?”   “Better, I guess. I don’t really feel bad, I just have trouble staying vertical. My body tends to prefer horizontal lately.” Nora smiled, trying to lighten the mood.   Paige shook her head, smiling at Nora. “Your body is trying to tell you something, Nora. You’ve been pushing yourself too hard.”   Nora shrugged. “It always worked before.”   “But it’s not working now. You need to rest. Matthew can go home with Bo, so you can get some sleep.”   Matthew stirred as he heard his name. He looked over and saw Paige. Immediately, he was angry again. “What are you doing in here?”   Paige ignored the tone of his voice and spoke softly to him with a broad smile. “I was just checking on your mom and telling her she needs to get some rest. You can go home with your dad…”   “I’m not going anywhere with him!” Matthew turned back to Nora. “I want to stay here with you.”   Nora shook her head. “I’d love that too, Matthew, but you can’t stay in a hospital if you’re not sick. You can stay with Bo tonight and I promise you can see me first thing in the morning.”   “But I don’t want to be with him,” Matthew whined. “Can you call MaryAnn and have her take me to our house?”   “Matthew, it’s late. MaryAnn is probably asleep. Your father is already here. You can bunk with him for tonight, can’t you?”   Matthew was shaking his head as his mother spoke. “I don’t want to go with him. I’ll call MaryAnn myself. I know she’ll come get me.”   As Matthew was speaking, there was a soft knock on the door. Nora, Paige and Matthew turned to look as Bo poked his head in the door. Nora felt Matthew tense. “Mom said she didn’t want you in here. Get out,” Matthew said, sitting up and glaring at Bo.   Nora pulled him back, trying to settle him. “Bo, please. This is not the time and I’m not in any condition to argue with you. Please just leave. We can discuss this later.”   Bo spoke softly. “I didn’t come to argue with you, Nora. I just want to know what’s going on and how I can help.”   Matthew again leaned forward. “We don’t need your help. And mom doesn’t want you here. Don’t make her cry again.”   Bo was taken aback by his son’s anger. “I have no intention of making your mom cry, Matthew.”   Paige’s beeper went off and she excused herself. When the door closed behind her, Bo turned to his son again. “Why don’t we head home and let your mom get some rest?”   Matthew shook his head defiantly. “I’m not going with you.”   “I can see that you’re mad at me, Matthew, but you can’t stay in the hospital.”   “MaryAnn will come and get me. Mom said I could call her.”   Nora intervened at this point. “Mom said no such thing.” She turned to Bo. “But if Matthew would feel more comfortable staying at my house tonight, I will call her and ask her to come pick him up.”   “That’s unnecessary when I’m already here.”   Matthew looked at Bo with a challenge in his eyes. “But I’m not going with you.”   Bo glanced at Nora and could tell she was getting upset. He spoke calmly to his son. “Okay, Matthew. If that’s what you want.”   Matthew nodded. “It is. Mom and I can handle this, right Mom?”   Bo reached into his pocket and held some money out to Matthew. “Would you mind going down to the cafeteria and getting a soda? I want to talk to your mom.”   Matthew shook his head. “She doesn’t want you in here. Michael said he would call security, didn’t he, mom?”   Nora nodded. “But I don’t think that will necessary. Why don’t you do as your dad asked? I want to talk to him for a minute.”   Matthew looked at her dubiously, holding his ground. Nora nudged him. “Go on. I’ll be fine, I promise.”   Matthew reluctantly slid off the bed, eyeing his father cautiously as he made his way to the door. When it closed behind him, Nora turned her attention to Bo. Before she could speak, Bo jumped in.   “Look, Nora. I don’t want to upset you. I know you don’t want to talk to me about any of this but I need you to know that I am here for you and I will do whatever you need…”   Bo stopped when Nora burst into sarcastic laughter. “Since when, Bo? You haven’t been ‘here for me’ for years. What makes you think I want that now?”   Bo spoke calmly, not wanting to get her wound up. “We can discuss the mistakes I made later. Right now the most important thing is to get you whatever help you need and… um… anything… whatever is wrong with you…”   Bo stopped. His sputtering attempt to comfort her falling flat since he had no idea what he was dealing with. Nora didn’t make it easy on him. She sat quietly watching him, letting him squirm before finally jumping into the awkward silence.   “Why Bo?”   Bo looked at her curiously. “Why what?”   “Why do you want to help me now? Is it pity? Because I don’t need that from you.”   Bo spoke impatiently. “It’s not pity, Nora. I want to help you because you are…”   “Don’t you dare say ‘Matthew’s mother.’ I don’t need your pity and I am perfectly able to take care of my son.”   Nora was getting agitated and Bo put his hand up to stop her. “Nora, please. Your blood pressure will jump and Dr. McBain will have me escorted from the building. You are obviously not going to hear me right now. Let’s table this for now. I’m going to leave and let you rest but we will have this discussion. Tell Matthew I said good night and I will see him soon. Take care of yourself, Nora.”   Bo slowly walked to the door and opened it, glancing back at Nora before disappearing into the hall. Nora let out a deep breath after he left. Why was it that after all this time, that man still knew how to push all her buttons? Contrary to her bravado when Bo was in the room, she did need him. She was surprised at the anger Matthew was displaying toward his father. That was probably her fault too. Despite her and Bo’s best efforts, Matthew was acutely aware of the tension between them. Bo was right, Matthew was a bright enough kid to pick up on their barely veiled contempt for each other in the aftermath of the Daniel fiasco. It did not go unnoticed that Nora chose to ignore Bo unless she had to speak to him. She had kept her promise and never spoke ill of Bo to her son or in front of him. But Matthew had known about her dizzy spells for the past couple months and Nora had subtly encouraged him not to mention them to his father. She could see now that she had put her son in an awkward situation and because of his loyalty to her, he hadn’t spoken to Bo. But she hadn't taken into account her son's fear. Matthew was so scared and Bo was the natural person to turn to, except Matthew couldn’t talk to his father about how scared he was for his mother. And now, Matthew was taking out his fear on Bo. It was unfair and she knew it. One more thing she had to worry about, on top of…   She was startled out of her thoughts when Matthew crawled into the bed with her.   “Mom? Hey, is dad gone?”   “Yes, sweetie. He said to tell you good night and he will see you soon. We need to discuss your behavior, Matthew.”   “Not tonight, mom. I know I have to talk to dad, but I don’t want to do it when you’re here. I know you don’t like having him around and I want you to get better.”   Ouch, Nora thought. “Matthew, I’m sorry about the way I acted. Your dad has a right to be here and you shouldn’t be angry at him because I’m sick. It’s not his fault. And to be fair, before tonight, he wasn’t aware of my illness. Maybe you could cut him some slack?”   Matthew looked at her as he shook his head slowly. “I don’t want to talk about dad. Did you call MaryAnn?” Nora shook her head. “Let’s call her and I can go home so you can get some rest. I’ll be back first thing tomorrow.” He grinned at her wickedly. “And you know how early I get up!”   Nora laughed as she grabbed her son in a bear hug. He was as good at avoidance as his parents. He picked up the phone off the side of the bed and handed it to her. Nora called MaryAnn and settled into the bed with Matthew to wait for her to arrive.   Bo walked slowly to the nurse’s station, his head down, lost in thought. When he looked up, Paige was watching him quietly from the side of the desk.   “You okay,” Paige asked quietly.   Bo shook his head. “Hardly.”   “Why don’t we head to your place? Maybe get some takeout and we can talk?”   Again Bo shook his head. “Not tonight. I need to be alone.”   “Okay. Bo, you do understand why I can’t tell you about Nora’s condition, right?”   Bo let out a deep breath and looked to the ceiling. “Right now, I don’t understand anything. I rush my ex-wife to the hospital after she collapses. My son seems to have been dealing with this for a while on his own and he is interpreting that as my not caring about his mother or her health. And my…” he hesitated, “girlfriend the doctor has known about it all along and has been cozying up to my son in hopes of what? Replacing his mother?”   “Bo, I understand you’re hurt but that’s just not fair.”   “Well, I’m not in the mood to be fair. I don’t like being kept in the dark. When Nora and I were first together, she was suffering from headaches and blackouts that were eventually determined to be caused by a brain tumor. She went blind and was nearly raped by a maniac. She didn’t tell me what was going on then either. I’m having a serious case of déjà vu here and it’s worse this time because I have my son to worry about. He’s behaving like his mother and shutting me out.”   “Matthew is just a little boy. He’s reacting, not thinking. He loves you, you know that.”   “And he was beginning to trust you. ‘Good old Paige, who didn’t lie to him like Daniel did.’ But what you’re doing to him is even worse. You’re forcing him to deal with his fears for his mother’s health without me. Why would you do that to a little boy?”   Paige tried to defend herself but Bo held up his hands. “Please, I don’t want to discuss this right now. I need to get out of here.” Bo turned to leave and Paige called out to him.   “Bo, what does this do to us? Are we okay?”   Bo shook his head. “I can’t even think about that right now.”   Paige watched him walk away, shaking her head and wondering if she had lost Bo even though Spencer hadn’t had a chance to exact his revenge. No, she would not let Bo get away. Not when she had worked so hard to get in good with him and his son. She was too close to having everything she ever wanted. Bo would come around, she would see to it…   TBC