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*DIGEST SALUTES THE BEST OF DAYTIME* EDITORS' CHOICE   Stir Of Echoes, ONE LIFE TO LIVE   [Picture of BO and NORA.... Have a Cigar: Four years on, Nora and Bo learned that they had a kid together.(the picture is from BO and NORA talking at Keri's shower) ]   There was Bo, reeling from the news that Matthew was his son, not Sam's, after all. The story that began in 1998, when a desperate Nora slept with old flame Sam in order to get pregnant so that a depressed Bo(who had just lost Drew and thought he was infertile) would have a baby and a reason to live ---- was shockingly altered.   And there was Nora, ready to raise hell with Bo's gal, Gabrielle, because Gabs had read a post-mortem letter from Sam. Gabrielle made a hasty exit, and there they were: OLTL's once-upon-a-time golden couple. Seeing them together, it was easy to flash back. It could have been any moment before 1999, when Bo learned of Nora's "infidelity" and left her. After all, the kid she'd had wasn't even his.   What a high point to have them together again, if not as a couple, then at least with the incredible electricity that sparked the instant they had something worth tearing into. Nora, strident and forceful, blasted to Bo about Gabrielle's treachery in reading the letter(however innocent) to Matthew: "He's just a little boy, a little boy wh just lost his father." "No. He didn't." And like a long-held breath being exhaled, Bo let it come out. Eyes tearing, Robert S. Woods allowed a complex mix of joy, regret, sorrow and bare comprehension of the big picture flicker across his face in the half-second pause before he spoke: "Matthew's my son." Brilliantly executed, masterfully played.(The one thing that would have made the reveal more poignant and meaningful is if it had happened in 1999.)   Bo and Nora were never just a soap couple. Funny, smart and equally matched, they were also honest with each other, which proved a recipe for success --- and, unfortunately, stagnation that had little to do with the actors involved: Hillary B. Smith fleshes out Nora in three dimensions as a lively workaholic mom whose intelligence glitters from her dark eyes. Woods has played the rough-hewn good guy for so long, the role fits him like a custom-made Stetson.   The one thing this couple never did was procreate -- or so they thought. And as Sam's delayed time bomb sank in for the former husband-and-wife team, the water sloshing under Bo and Nora's bridge was all but audible.   After reading the letter from Sam aloud in a pained voice, Nora raged that Sam should have spoken up: "You had a right to know!" Bo looked on with calm of a Zen master. Knowing he was in the right --- that he had another son, at last -- made him untouchable. Nora's ranting had subtext, too: Sam could have saved so much pain between her and Bo; maybe something could have been salvaged between them. It is the thing that fans have vocalized for years, noting that Nora's indiscretion was hardly a night of passion and that she was punished too severely.   "Oh, Bo," sighed Nora. "This is a mess."   Then the two of them decided to keep Matthew's paternity a secret..... for now. "It's not about me,not about you and it's not about Sam," said Bo. "This is all about a little boy who just lost his father. Not his biological father, but it's a man that had been his dad."   The choice made, Nora and Bo parted. What was rent between them years ago can't be instantly repaired; what's left are, well, echos.(At least for now.) What sticks with us is Bo's reaction. As the door closed behind Nora, Bo settled in an easy chair and loosened his tie. Then, a gentle smile slowly appeared on his face. You could almost hear him thinking it: Dad.   Something Bo had wished for had finally come true ---- just as it had for long-time Bo and Nora fans. It's an unexpected gift for two of our favorite characters. Matthew's discovery of his paternity has been put on hold, but think of it as yet another present still waiting to be unwrapped.