Happy Place

…a copy of the paternity test was leaked to these news offices this afternoon. Zack Bishop, who was announced last night as both the son and successor of Robert Ravers after the latter’s immediate retirement, is revealed by the test to not be related to Mr. Ravers at all. Stocks in Ravers Enterprises have seen a sudden drop as speculation begins regarding the future of the company. Many members of the board and Robert Ravers himself have refused to comment, redirecting to the official released statement that states ‘while Ravers Enterprises are conducting their own, independent investigation, Zack Bishop continues to have the faith and support of the entire board’…

The opening of the cabin door drew everyone’s attention from the newscast but it was only Kurt, returning from the yard to check that Kendra’s car was really gone. With everyone else present and accounted for, there was no doubt in his mind that Victoria had stolen the car and made her getaway. The only question he had was where she had gone, and whether she had returned to Shawn, which was a very real possibility given his was the name she’d screamed, minutes before she disentangled her body from his and ran from the bedroom.

“It’s really gone,” Kurt said with a defeated breath. “She’s really gone.”

“Who leaves their keys in their car anyway?” Chloe asked, glancing at Kendra as she tried to juggle paying attention to both Kurt and the news broadcast.

“Well, I thought it’d be safe with everyone here,” Kendra huffed, folding her arms over her breasts. “It’s not like in town where anyone could walk past and jump in.”

“Except she did,” Kurt noted, though he didn’t blame Kendra. If Victoria wanted to leave, she would have found a way. “So, now we have to figure out where she went, and find her, before Shawn does.”

Another interruption, in the form of Heather returning, phone in hand, divided their attentions further. Her brow was furrowed, annoyed as one might expect, but there was also a sense of perplexion around her as she tried to deduce exactly how the text results might have been leaked. It had to be someone who wanted to cause disorder at the company, as well as someone who had access to the results, and the overlap of those two circles was quite small.

“Okay, so apparently it’s not quite as bad as the news is making it out to be,” Heather announced as she strode over behind the sofa, and rested with her arms on the back, while quickly taking in the newest details on the screen. “My dad just got out of an emergency board meeting and he’s managed to make them agree to wait twenty-four hours before taking any action. I had hoped for more time, but…”

“More time for what?” Ashley inquired, looking back at her dark-haired friend.

“Oh, oh nothing, just it always seems to take these things a few days to get sorted out,” Heather explained. “Dad says he plans to make an announcement within the next couple of hours, confirming Zack’s appointment, that he was chosen because he is smart and reliable, not because of his blood.”

“Really?” Peter cocked an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t it just be easier to admit the mistake and bring back Robert?”

“No. My dad said he cautioned the board against that because it would make the board seem wishy-washy, and might actually cause more damage to the stocks. Even if it did result in an upswing in the short term, whenever Robert actually retired at some point, the memory of this event could make it much worse,” Heather reiterated the conversation she’d just had with her father. “However, because Zack’s dad had been at the Manor this morning, shouting that Zack shouldn’t be working for us, my dad left the decision up to Zack, and he was more than willing to stay on.”

“His dad said that?” Ashley half gasped, her mind immediately whirling as she considered the consequences. “That would make him a prime suspect then, right? He could have released it to get back at Robert and hopefully **** Zack out of the company.”

“No way. Gregory is a good man,” Chloe defended her friend’s father. She’d grown up with Zack, which meant growing up with Gregory, and at times he’d almost felt like a second father to her, and she held him in almost as high esteem as her own dad. “He’s too honorable and ethical to do something like this. It has to be someone else.”

“News like this can change people though,” Kendra suggested, though she really had very little stake in all of this. She only barely knew Gregory through Taylor, though from what she’d seen, he was exactly as Chloe described.

“Everyone’s quick to jump on this wagon against Zack’s dad, but what if it was Zack himself?” Brandon noted, acutely aware of his own bias but it was also the option that made the most sense to him. “Despite what everyone thinks, he’s certainly no saint. Maybe he wanted to really take over the company, and tried to use this to discredit Robert.”

“He has been spending a lot of time in conversation with my uncle lately, and he’s been strangely obtuse about what they’re talking about,” Heather admitted, tilting her head and rubbing her chin. “But still, I dunno…maybe if Lisa put him up to it, I guess…”

“Lord knows I don’t like Zack much, and Lisa hasn’t been my greatest ally lately either,” Madison prefaced before continuing, “But, even if Lisa thought he should take over, I don’t think she’d suggest anything this underhanded.”

“Neither would Zack,” Ashley argued staunchly. “Fine, I know, he did cheat, but he did that for love, not for power.”

Both Brandon and Chloe regarded Ashley’s response with disdain, but Heather cut in before either of them could vent their grievances, saying, “I agree, mostly because it’s a rather ill-thought plan if it was Zack. Releasing the paternity test does as much to discredit him as it does to Robert. The only one who benefits in this case is probably…Daniel.”

“And you,” Kendra added.

“Well, yes, but I know I didn’t do it, and these four have been with me all day since I got back, so they can vouch for me,” Heather replied, simply stating facts rather than being defensive. “Besides, I’d never do anything to hurt my dad’s company, regardless of who sits in the chair.”

“So, maybe Daniel cut a deal with Zack,” Trent suggested. If Brandon didn’t like Zack, that was reason enough for him, but he also had his own reasons to dislike the dark-haired teenager. He still hadn’t forgiven him for cockblocking his attempt to take Madison home from the nightclub. “Maybe Zack is allowed to stay on in the company in another role, while Daniel takes over from Robert?”

“Possibly…although it’s hard for me to believe either of them would be involved in something like that,” Heather confessed with a shrug and a sigh. “But, there’s nothing we can do about it right now, I guess, so we should focus on Victoria for now. She should be the priority, provided she’s still missing, yes?”

Kurt nodded. “Yeah, she’s still missing.”

“I hate to be THAT person, but what if she doesn’t want to be found?” Ashley noted. She had been feeling a lot warmer towards Vicky since this morning, but that wasn’t to say that she wholly trusted her, and she didn’t discount the possibility her best friend had slid back into her bad ways. “Or if she went back to Shawn? I mean, you haven’t told us the circumstances of when she ran off.”

“Right, yeah. It’s kind of embarrassing but, uh, we were fucking…” Kurt laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head, as he looked around at the faces of his friends. Heather smirked at him, and Trent nodded with pride, though Ashley, Brandon and Kendra barely reacted at all, having totally expected it. Only Chloe seemed slightly irritated. “It was her idea, see, to try and overload her brain with pleasure so that she might get her voice back. And it did work, only, the first name she called out when she was able to talk was Shawn’s.”

“Ooof, the girl you’re in bed with calling out some other guys name. That’s rough,” Trent consoled him, though he couldn’t help but add, “Not that it’s ever happened to me.”

“That kind of proves it though, doesn’t it?” Chloe asked. “She called out his name, so she probably went running back to him.”

“I don’t know if that’s true. Maybe she just needed time to think, to get her head straight,” Madison countered, remembering her own encounter with Shawn in the alleyway and how Kurt and Victoria had come to find her. Sure, they had come too late to keep her plan from backfiring on her, but it mattered to Madison that they had come at all. “She could be anywhere, doing anything, and if we write her off, we’re as good as giving her over to Shawn on a silver platter.”

“I agree. I’m not willing to come to a conclusion based on an assumption, no matter how well founded.” Kendra said as she smiled softly. “If nothing else, I’d like to find my car.”

“Okay, let’s say we find her, and we bring her back. How many times do we keep doing it?” Ashley challenged them, wanting to believe like they did that Victoria was just missing, again, but knowing that it was equally possible that she’d was lost again in more than just the physical sense. “At some point, we’re going to have to let her make the decision for herself. She’s going to have to choose to come back.”

“Let’s see for ourselves, first. We can decide how to handle the situation once we know more about the circumstances. If we find Victoria and she’s with Shawn, then we’ll have our answer, and we can decide whether we want to drag her away from him once more,” Kurt conceded, fighting against his instinct to simply bring her back, whatever the context. “But first we need to look for her.”

“It shouldn’t bee too difficult,” Heather said, turning to Kendra. “We can just track the GPS in your car from my laptop.”

Kendra blinked blankly at Heather before informing her, “my car doesn’t have built-in GPS. We aren’t all heiresses of million-dollar companies.”

“Any other ideas?” Kurt quickly asked, seeing Heather’s eye twitch and eager to prevent any more bad blood. “I think we should check places that are important to her, as well as places where she might meet Shawn.”

“Like Surrender?” Brandon suggested. “That’s where they met up last time, and where… I don’t mind going to look for them there.”

“Great, but you shouldn’t go alone. Take…” Kurt’s eyes flickered towards Madison, but that seemed like a bad idea, given how rocky their relationship was recently, and putting them together might only reopen that wound. It was clearly still on Brandon’s mind at least. An explosive situation that could be made all the worse if they did actually manage to run into Shawn. Kurt was dubious that Brandon would be able to restrain himself.

“I’ll go with him,” Chloe offered, seeing Kurt’s conflict.

“He’s also been known to frequent McGinn’s,” Kendra said, before Kurt could protest the previous paring.

Not that he had much reason to, though Kurt couldn’t help but feel that Chloe had specifically chosen so that she wouldn’t be pared with him. However, he focused on finding Victoria as he assigned the next group to the location. “Alright, Heather, Madison, do you two want to check out the bar?”

They nodded as Ashley picked out the next location. “I’d like to be the one to speak with her parents. They’ll probably be at the newspaper offices, so I can head over there.” She looked up at her sister’s ex-boyfriend. “Want to come with me?”

“Sure. I have some time to kill before I’m supposed to meet with Mary,” Peter agreed warmly. “And I don’t like the idea of just giving Shawn what he wants.”

“I guess that leaves me and you, Kendra,” Kurt concluded as he thought of another location. “I guess we should also check out her home. Even if no one else is there, she might have gone back there if it’s somewhere she feels safe and happy. Is that…oh, Trent, sorry, I forgot about you. Do you want to go with the girls to…”

The black teen shook his head. “Nah, I think I’ll stay here. Someone should be here if Gavin wakes up, or if Victoria comes back.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Heather said, surprised it had come from Trent.

“Okay, so everyone knows where they’re going and who they’re going with?” Kurt asked finally.

After everyone agreed, they split into their couples and left the cabin, two by two, heading to their assigned spots. Kurt and Kendra took Heather’s car to Victoria’s home, while Chloe rode with Brandon in his jeep to Surrender. Heather and Madison took the other’s twin’s car to Surrender, and finally, Ashley and Peter headed in his car to the headquarters of the Walker’s newspaper to speak with her parents, leaving Trent to his own devices in the cabin, just like last night, while Gavin slept.