Maeve Consoles Delia About Frank and Jill's Affair
(December 1975)(Maeve escorts Delia into, I guess, her and Johnny's bedroom.)
DELIA: (pretending everything's fine) Have I ever told you how much I love this room? Really, I mean it just captures you and Johnny - the pictures and everything and all the presents the children gave you when they were little. It's a great room, really.
MAEVE: It's a great room for talking. It's one of the few rooms in the house where you can't possibly be overheard. That's why we picked it.
DELIA: (laughing) I never thought the walls were particularly thin.
MAEVE: All walls are thin.
DELIA: Oh, I wish I had that problem! I need exercise or something. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get some bicycles or something and this spring Frank and I can go bicycle riding in the park. You know, when he's not too busy.
MAEVE: Delia, how can you say things like this after you know what's happened?
DELIA: (nervous) What do you mean? Frank is gonna get better.
MAEVE: Oh, I know that.
DELIA: And then we're gonna go skiing and ice-skating and we're gonna play golf...
MAEVE: Darling, his getting better is not going to make everything alright. Some things just can't be undone.
DELIA: (frightened) Did he talk to you?
MAEVE: Didn't you know he would?
DELIA: (defensive, assuming that Maeve knows she was the one who pushed Frank) He promised me!
MAEVE: It was bound to come out in the open, it's better that way.
DELIA: Look, I don't want him to get any weird ideas! It's not the way it sounds! Look, I didn't mean to do it, it really wasn't my fault! Please, just don't blame me, please, believe me! I didn't mean for it to happen.
MAEVE: Nobody's blaming you. There's nobody to be blamed. It's just that we were all so sorry that you've been in such pain lately, and now I understand why you've seemed so sad and seemed so unhappy and you wanted Frank back from the hospital so desperately.
DELIA: (realizing) He told you about Jill.
MAEVE: Well it explains a lot about what's been going on in this house lately. Now I know why you're in such a state.
DELIA: Do you know how terrible it is to try so hard to be a good wife and a good mother and for nothing? Maeve, everything was so right in the beginning. He loved me! You know, I made him laugh, and he taught me so much. Maeve, we've known each other all of our lives. I know we could be wonderful again, there's just no reason...
MAEVE: Well it's not a reasonable world, dear.
DELIA: Three years, three years I watched him grow away from me. You know when you have something and you know you're losing it and you can't do anything about it. Helpless! Maeve, I was helpless! And he started law school. How am I supposed to compete with that? And I figured after I had the baby, it was gonna be okay again. The phone calls started again, only he was working overtime. (crying) I never saw him on the weekend...
MAEVE: Oh, darling, I'm so sorry.
DELIA: I wanted him to go to law school, until I realized why he was enjoying it so much - his teacher. You know what she taught him? How to abandon wife and child. I was very hurt, and I know I acted like a baby...
MAEVE: Don't be silly, you had all the reason in the world to feel...
DELIA: She had no right to take him away from me! I mean, how could she do that? She has everything! She has money, she has a career, she doesn't need him. I need him!
DELIA: Look, I know I'm not as smart as she is, I'm not as well-dressed as she is, I'm not as pretty as she is...
MAEVE: Aww...you know you're lovely.
DELIA: But there's one thing, I care! Maeve, I care about him. He's the first thing in my life and I want him, I'd do anything to get him, anything!
MAEVE: I know that, dear.
DELIA: I'd do anything, just to make sure he's mine.
MAEVE: Awww..here, dry your eyes.
MAEVE: You've got no reason for tears.
DELIA: You're the first person I've talked to. I am a failure! (breaks down) He's the only thing that I cared about, he's the only thing that I wanted. I've gotta make this marriage work. It's more important to me than anything else in this world.
MAEVE: I am a firm believer that whatever anybody wants, they can do...
DELIA: (quietly) I don't want to live without him.
MAEVE: Delia, you don't mean that.
DELIA: (turning around) What don't I mean?
MAEVE: That you can't live without Frank.
DELIA: Oh, look, I didn't mean for it to sound like that. But I have a baby. I don't know how I'm going to take care of the baby. I mean, how am I going to raise him without Frank? How am I gonna do it?
MAEVE: Awww...
DELIA: Where am I gonna live? How am I gonna raise little Johnny without Frank?
MAEVE: Oh, he'll have his father darling, no matter what happens to the two of you.
DELIA: I never had much of a family. My baby's going to have a family!
MAEVE: He has a family - all of us, all the Ryans. And so do you. Whatever happens, darling, know that we're your family and you're always welcome here. This is your home.
DELIA: (crying) You're the best. I wish I could be like you. Thank you.
(Later, Maeve is getting ready for bed and combing her hair when Johnny comes into the room. He takes off his vest.)
JOHNNY: Well, it's all locked up.
MAEVE: Bet you're glad to see this day over.
JOHNNY: I wish it had never begun.
MAEVE: Well, one thing you can rest assured, it's never gonna be repeated.
JOHNNY: (taking off his suspenders and sitting down on the bed) Well that would suit me just fine. Just fine.
JOHNNY: That feels good.
MAEVE: Oh, I knew it would.
JOHNNY: How are you feeling?
MAEVE: I can't get my mind off Delia and that tear-stained little face.
JOHNNY: I know. Frank's words just keep rolling around in my head. I just can't believe that Frank and Jill... I can't understand how we could have missed it that long!
MAEVE: We can't escape it, John. Yours and my son is in love with another woman.
JOHNNY: Well maybe he just thinks he is.
MAEVE: Oh, you know Frank. He always knows his own mind. We're gonna have to face it - what this means to everyone. To Little John, Mary, Pat, Bob, Ed Coleridge...
JOHNNY: Oh, the list is endless!
MAEVE: And the people of Riverside who voted for him.
JOHNNY: Yeah well, this time he's got himself into a fine mess, hasn't he?
MAEVE: He's managed to arrange for his political career and his marriage to go down the drain together.
JOHNNY: Well, if he'll hang tough, he'll come through somehow?
MAEVE: Well, with whom - Delia, Jill?
JOHNNY: I wish I weren't so fond of Jill Coleridge. I wish I... It would be easier to think of her as a homewrecker, you know? But I just can't.
MAEVE: Uhm, yeah. I guess it is understandable. I mean, they were thrown together so much.
JOHNNY: I wonder what Jill Coleridge is thinking about all this. I wonder if her father knows anything about it.
MAEVE: Oh, I doubt that. Jill has been leading her own life too long. Ed Coleridge is not the kind of man that mixes with his children's affairs.
JOHNNY: Unlike some fathers we know, right Mrs. Ryan?
MAEVE: Oh, John Ryan, I don't like that comparison. Mary would never be going around with Jack Fenelli if he were married.
JOHNNY: (nods) I'm sorry. It's just so sad, I can't help feeling we made a mistake somewhere along the line.
MAEVE: Don't try to figure it, John. No one's to blame. We'll just have to give both Delia and Frank our support. So many people are hurting.
JOHNNY: How 'bout you?
MAEVE: Oh, don't you know it!
JOHNNY: Well, we've got to believe everything will work out alright, just like Frank getting better. You know, this will too.
MAEVE: How, John, how? I mean, if Frank leaves Delia that's going to be horrible for her and the baby, but if he stays with her, after this, I mean is there going to be any happiness for either of them?
JOHNNY: Well, the baby will have both his parents, anyway. That'll be good, won't it?
MAEVE: Oh, a child holding a marriage together - that doesn't make for a very joyful home.
JOHNNY: Some way we can help?
MAEVE: You know, Frank is so independent. You taught him that. I don't think he'd take our help.
JOHNNY: Oh, you're probably right. There's nothing we can do.
MAEVE: Except be loving, whatever happens.
JOHNNY: I guess I can try.
MAEVE: I know you will. They'll have to handle this themselves.
JOHNNY: And what about Little John?
MAEVE: Oh, that's our concern. We've got to make sure this doesn't scar him for the rest of his life.