The next morning, Todd stood by the window in the living room. He hadn't really gotten much sleep the night before. Sam was home thankfully, but that didn't fix what his kidnapping did to all of them. It changed their lives forever. He and Marty were scared to even leave Sam alone in a room. They'd had to have him sleep with them the night before just so they'd know he was safe. Then there were the other kids. They were going through hell. Jack was dealing with the fact that his mother had tried to ruin his family and now he wasn't going to able to see her again. And Dani had to deal with the fact that the guy she used think of as her father had used her little brother to try to get to her. So while everyone was happy to have Sam back, there was still sadness in their lives right now.

Todd was pulled from his thoughts by a knock on the door. He quickly left the living room and went to the front door, where he found Starr and Cole. "Hey, guys. Come on in," he said before moving aside to let them in.

"Where's everyone else?" Starr asked as the three of them entered the house.

"They're still sleeping as far as I know," Todd said.

"Are you okay?" Starr asked.

"Not really. I mean, it's good that Sam is home, but it's not over," Todd said.

Starr nodded. She couldn't disagree with that. They were all still going to have to deal with the aftermath of Sam's kidnapping and who was involved. "I just spoke to Aunt Dorian. She's trying to get the charges against Mom dropped." She was a bit reluctant to tell him that, but in the end, she figured he deserved to know. He needed to be prepared for her mother possibly getting out.

Todd wasn't surprised to hear that. Dorian would do anything to protect Blair, even if she didn't deserve that. "I'm sure she is. I'm also sure she'll succeed."

"Dad-"

"We both know it, Starr. There's no use denying. Your mother's not going to have to pay for what she did to Sam. Dorian will see to that. She'll get out, and when she does, she's going to keep coming after us," Todd said. He wasn't stupid. Blair was going to keep trying to destroy them. She wasn't going to stop unless he stopped her.

"So what are you going to do?" Cole asked. He knew Todd well enough to know that he wasn't going to just let Blair keep coming after them.

"I don't know. All I know is that this can't keep happening," Todd said.

Soon, Marty was heard coming down the stairs. "Hey, you guys. How long have you been here?"

"Hey, Mom. Not long. We've only been here a few minutes," Cole said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Where's Hope?" Marty asked.

"Langston's watching her," Starr said.

Marty nodded before going over to Todd, who put an arm around her. "The kids still sleeping?" Todd asked.

"Yeah, I just checked on them. I don't think Jack and Dani slept any better than we did," Marty said sadly.

"Mom, can I talk to you alone for a minute?" Cole asked. It was time for him to own up for the crappy way he'd treated his mother since he'd gotten back.

Marty nodded and led the way into the living room. Once there, they both sat down on the couch. "So what's up?"

"I owe you an apology," Cole said.

"I'd say so," Marty said. She wasn't going to make this easy on her son. His actions had hurt her deeply. She was going to make Cole face how wrong he'd been.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the way I've treated you. I'm sorry for trying to make you choose between me and Dad. I'm sorry that I accused Todd of brain washing you," Cole said.

"You have no idea how much that hurt. That you could think I could be that easily manipulated. I thought you knew me better than that," Marty said.

Cole looked down. He should've known his mother wasn't going make this easy on him. He didn't deserve for it to be easy. He'd hurt his mother a lot, and he deserved her anger. "I'm sorry. I guess I just couldn't accept that you could love someone who raped you. I just didn't understand."

"It's not for you to understand, Cole. Who I choose to be with is my choice, not yours," Marty said firmly.

"I know that now. I also know that Todd loves you. I saw the way he was with you when Sam was missing. His love for you was clear," Cole said. As much as he hated it, he couldn't deny that Todd did love his mother, or that she loved him back.

Marty smiled. "Thank you for acknowledging that."

"Can you forgive me?" Cole asked.

"Forgiveness was never a question, Cole. You are my son, for better or worse. I will always love you and I will always forgive you," Marty promised.

"I love you too, Mom, and I'm sorry I hurt you. I can't apologize for leaving though. I can't regret that because I love Starr and Hope so much. These last two years have been so wonderful for us. And if we'd stayed, we might not have had that," Cole said. He knew that if he'd stayed, there was a possibility that he and Starr wouldn't have survived the drama of Llanview. Hell, they'd only been back a couple of weeks, and the drama had already nearly swallowed them all whole.

"Fair enough. I can accept that," Marty said. She wasn't exactly wild about her son's answer, but he was being honest. She couldn't ask for anything else.

"I am sorry that we hurt you though. And I do realize now that no one was to blame for our decision to leave but us," Cole acknowledged.

"I'm glad," Marty said. She was happy to hear her son admit to his mistakes.

"So what's going to happen now?" Cole asked. He didn't just mean between him and his mother. He meant for all of them. What Blair and Ross Rayburn did was going have lasting effects on all of them.

"I'm not sure. I have to talk to Todd about something before anything else can be decided," Marty said.

Before Cole had the chance to press his mother on that, a small voice could be heard from upstairs.

"Mommy!"

"That's Sam. I better go see how he's doing," Marty said before getting up and leaving the room.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Marty walked back into the living room about twenty minutes later. She found Todd sitting on the couch. "Did Starr and Cole leave?

Todd nodded. "Yeah, a few minutes ago. Is Sam okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. I think he just needed to see one of us," Marty said. Sam had seemed okay the night before, but he did seem to want to make sure his parents hadn't left him. "He's playing in his room now. Jack and Dani are up now too. They're not as okay thought."

"What are we going to do, Marty? How are we supposed to help our kids heal there are about a thousand reminders in this town about what has been taken from them?" Todd asked. He was beginning to see the town of Llanview as the problem. Jack was going to be reminded of what his mother did every day. Everyone in town knew who Blair was. It was a small town. Not to mention the fact that he very much doubted Blair was going to go to prison. She was going to get out and continue to cause trouble for them.

Marty went over and sat down next to her husband. "I actually have a possible solution to that."

"I'm all ears," Todd said. He was willing to do anything to help his kids through this right now.

"Right before Starr and Cole showed up, I was offered a job as head of psychiatry at my old hospital in San Diego," Marty told him. When she'd first found out about it, she'd decided not to take it because she didn't want to uproot the kids, but now she was starting to think it was a good idea to go.

Todd looked at her surprised. This was the first he was hearing of this. "Why didn't you tell me about this before?"

"Because it didn't seem like the right time to just up and go. Jack had supervised visits with Blair and I didn't want to take that away from him, and it would've meant either leaving Dani behind or taking her from Tea. Not to mention that Cole and Starr showed up not long afterwards and we had to deal with them," Marty explained.

"Well, now those obstacles are gone," Todd said. Blair's visitation was about to be terminated, and he was going to petition for primary custody of Dani. Tea had proved that she couldn't put Dani's needs ahead of her own. As for Starr and Cole, he was almost certain that they weren't going to be staying in Llanview. They had their lives in LA to get back to.

"That's why I'm mentioning it now. I don't think we can stay here any longer. Because you're right, our children are never going to be free here. I mean, even if Blair and Ross disappeared off the face of the earth, they'll still have to deal with our history here. They'll have to see the way people look at them just for being our kids. That's not fair. They deserve to live their lives in peace. So do we," Marty said.

Todd nodded. It made sense. It was a good solution. The best they had right now. "Take the job. We'll go."

Xxxxxxxxxxx

"You guys are really leaving Llanview?" Starr asked. She, Cole, her aunt Viki, and their parents were sitting in her aunt Viki's living room. Her father and Marty had just told them of their plans.

Marty nodded. "There's not really any reason for us to stay anymore and staying would just hurt the kids."

"Besides, you guys aren't going to stay, are you?" Todd asked.

"No, we're not," Cole said. He and Starr had talked about it. They'd decided that they would return to LA. "We're going back to LA. It's our home now."

Marty nodded. She'd assumed as much. "Well, LA and San Diego aren't that far away. We'll see a lot of each other. This is really for the best."

Todd nodded his agreement.

"I wish you all didn't have to go," Viki said. She was going to miss them all terribly. "But I understand why you do. If I were in your position, I'd probably do the same. You have to keep in touch though. You have to come visit. All of you."

"We will. And you can come see us too," Todd said.

"When are you leaving?" Cole asked.

"We're going to go this weekend to look at houses. We'll be leaving for good in about two or three weeks," Marty said.

"Do the children know?" Viki asked.

"Yeah, we told them this morning. I think they actually agree that this is a good thing," Marty said. Both Jack and Dani seemed to realize that it wasn't good to be in Llanview anymore.

"When do you two leave?" Todd asked Cole and Starr.

"The end of the week. We have to go back to work on Monday," Cole said. Speaking of which, we better go. We've gotta start packing," Cole said before he and Starr stood up.

Marty and Todd stood up as well. "Yeah, we have to go to. There's a lot to do before we go."

"I'm going to miss you all. You'd all better come see me before you leave," Viki said.

"We will, sis, we promise," Todd said. The four of them then headed towards the door.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

A few days later, Todd and Marty were at the airport with Cole and Starr, who were about to go home. "Okay, you two, you call us when you get in," Marty told them.

"We will, Mom. And we'll see you in a couple of weeks to help you move in to the new place," Cole said.

Marty smiled before hugging both of them. Then Starr and Todd embraced. Todd then looked at Cole and stuck out his hand.

Cole looked at his hand for a minute before shaking it. He still wasn't a big fan of Todd's, but they were family. They would have to find a way to get along.

"Okay, we better go," Starr said.

"Bye, guys," Marty said.

"Bye," they said before heading towards the gate to get on the plan. Cole stopped for a minute and looked at his mom and Todd once more. "I'm glad we came here." He hadn't been wild about returning home at first, but now he knew it had been a good idea.

"Me too. Come on, let's go," Starr said. They then disappeared out of the gate.

THE END

A/N: Okay, that's it. I would now like to thank everyone for reading and reviewing. I hope you enjoyed it.