Believe

Drama • • Directed by: Rescue Me • 46 minutes

While trying to keep his relationship with Shelia from engulfing his life, Tommy gains an edge in his competition with Johnny for their half-sister, Mariel's, attention. Although Mariel is eager to have sex, even the suggestion that they might not have the same father can't overcome Tommy's reservations. After criticizing Mickey for suspecting that their half-brother, Father Murphy, is a child molester, Tommy is at the hospital with the boy he saved when, during another hallucination, he's encouraged to pray for the restoration of his marriage to Janet. Meanwhile, as Franco asks Laura to move in with him, and Jerry learns that his wife and son are planning a birthday party for Peter's boyfriend, Steven, Lou's ruse to keep Sondra interested in sex gets harder to maintain when he becomes interested in Candy -- the prostitute he's hired to help with the deception. Though everyone but Laura balked at the invitation, even after Jerry orders them to attend Steven's party, Tommy and company refuse to mingle with the decidedly gay crowd. However, after Laura insists that she and Franco join in the fun, and then Mike and Sean are unable to resist, too, only Tommy and Lou are left outside. But as Lou gears up the deception when Sondra calls demanding to know where he is, Franco and Laura's plans to live together are derailed when Sean unwittingly tells her about the nurse Franco was dating to feed his drug addiction. Meanwhile, things come unglued at the elder Gavin's apartment when Janet arrives to see her kids. As Franco begs Laura not to leave him, and Sean and Mike pretend to be gay in order to impress two women at the party, a call from Uncle Teddy sends Tommy rushing to his dad's apartment. Now on his own, Lou calls on Candy to help him keep up appearances for Sondra. However, deciding that he can't keep it up any longer, he tells Sondra the truth so he can spend the evening with Candy. Finally, as Jerry's frustration with Peter's homosexuality wanes, and a suspicious Mickey stalks Father Murphy, Tommy's prayers are answered when Janet decides she wants to give their marriage a second chance and the badly burned boy awakes from his coma.