THE SON ALSO RISES
Stand Alone Fan Fiction
Reality Check
When I started writing this story in November 2002, OLTL was still a frustrating place for T&B fans. Toward the end of September, Todd finally got off that Island from Hell where he was trapped all summer with Tea and Ross. He set out to sea in a pathetic makeshift raft and washed up in Guam, where he was promptly treated for amnesia and dehydration with a shampoo, haircut, and the addition of blonde highlights to his newly styled hair. He then hopped a plane and returned to Llanview pronto in order to get back to his family. Unfortunately, so far there doesn't seem to be a raft sturdy enough or common sense plentiful enough to get TPTB to admit how wretched Sham Island is and let Blair to put out to sea and paddle back to the only man she loves, Todd. Therefore, Blair is still trapped in that awful storyline with Sam, who continues to try to convince everyone he is a good guy, despite mounds of evidence to the contrary, such as the fact that while ignoring his own children he is making a calculated move on Blair, Starr and Jack just like an opportunistic and insidious disease he so resembles.
It's more than my poor heart can take. Sigh. What to do? What else? I've created my own little version of a bamboo escape module and am paddling away from Sham Island as fast as I can. Once again, when I have time for OLTL, I am primarily hanging out in the world of fan fiction. I have my fingers crossed that things will turn around for T&B and the writing will improve now that the new writers are in place. I'm taking a wait and see attitude, though, because the last two years of OLTL have turned my heart cynical and my hopes have been dashed more than once. Brian Frons, the new head of ABC Daytime, has asked fans to hang on until February when the new storylines from JG/MM kick in but it is becoming increasingly difficult. Every time I think things can't get worse the T&B storyline (as well as the rest of the show) sinks to a new low. Still I have a new motto: I believe in LOVE. I believe in HOPE. I believe in T&B.
It is not hard to imagine what inspired this story. After that seemingly never ending Island of Hell this summer was capped off with the skinny dipping scene between Todd and Tea, there was much discussion on the boards about whether they did or did not have sex. And, if they did have sex, was it possible that Tea would show up down the road with a child in tow. I hoped they didn't have sex and readily admitted that I didn’t want Tea to return with Todd's child. And I also admitted that I didn’t want Todd to have a child with anyone other than Blair (What can I say? I’m just an Unrepentant T&Ber) but if he did, I wanted it to be something other than the offspring of Hell Island. Instead, I wanted a story dipped in unresolved issues that stretched all of the way back to Ireland and was full of implications for the future. So I decided to try to write my version of such a story.
The Son Also Rises is a Stand Alone piece and despite the name (I couldn’t resist) it is not a sequel to Poseidon Rising. --Tessarae87 (11.09.02)
Addendum: The last three chapters of The Son Also Rises were posted on February 9, 2003.