FITCH MANSION
"No! Absolutely not!" Nick cries
out.
"Why not?" Ryan looks like a child
who has just been told that he can't have a sleepover with a friend.
"Because! Ryan, I need your help.
I'm not exactly young anymore. I need to be sure I have someone to step
in for me when the time comes."
"Why? Dad, if you're--if you're dead,
is it really going to matter whether or not someone carries on for you?"
Nick doesn't even hesitate. "Yes!
I have invested my life in this. I don't want everything I've worked for
to fall apart."
Ryan's voice climbs in volume. "What
is it going to matter?"
"Because it does!" Nick fires back.
Then he suddenly gets much quieter. "And I want you to be successful. I
want to know that you'll do okay."
"I can be successful in a regular
job!"
"Maybe. But we don't know that. I
don't know that you'd do so well having to play by those rules, Ryan. But
this--you can handle this."
"No, I can't! Haven't you heard anything
I've said?"
Nick is about to ride right along
with the flow of the argument when a thought strikes him. "Does this have
anything to do with Claire?"
Clearly caught off-guard, Ryan responds
with a perplexed look -- which, to Nick, looks a little bit forced.
"You're so busy trying to convince
her that you've changed, that you're worthy, all that nonsense," Nick says.
"Is this part of that?"
"No!" Ryan insists, though he isn't
able to say it as easily as he would like. "This is about me. I'm ... What
am I? I'm pathetic! I shouldn't be living like some 20 year old kid trying
to follow in Daddy's footsteps. I'm a grown man and I would like to feel
like it at some point!"
Nick huffs into his mustache. He
turns to face the window and looks out of it absently, following two men
as they climb into a gray car out on the street.
"Ryan," he says gently, "if you want
a bigger part in things, then--"
"I don't want any part of
it! Don't you understand that?"
Nick wants to come back with something
sharp, but something in his head won't let him. There's something hanging
... a loose thread ... like something isn't right.
"Dad? What is it?"
Nick just keeps staring out of the
window, thinking. He watches the gray car take off down the street and
away from the mansion.
"Dad?"
"We've got to get out of here," Nick
says suddenly, already moving for the study door.
"What?" Ryan watches Nick's growing
anxiety. "What are you talking about?"
"Come on," Nick says, pulling Ryan
out of the room. "We need to find Katherine."
And that's when they hear the scream.
"Fire!" Katherine screams from somewhere
on the second story. "The house is on fire!"
END OF EPISODE #208
Do you think Katherine will listen
to what Andy, Brent, and Maggie had to say? What might this fire mean for
the Morianis and Fitches? Share your thoughts over at the
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