I experimented with a few different opening scenes before settling on one. One of which is lost due to computer crash–other is this short collection of scenes, perhaps half a chapter.  The other outake concerned the teens having a night out at Club 101, which is all I really remember of it. I might still find it one day, you never know.

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August 15, 2005

Alcazar & Corinthos House: Sage’s Bedroom

Carly Corinthos folded one of her adopted daughter’s tank tops and set it on top of a pile already settled into her suitcase. In just a week, Sage Alcazar would be moving out of this bedroom and into a dorm room at Port Charles University with Maxie Jones.

She wasn’t ready for this. She hadn’t been ready for the sex talk (though by the time Carly had gathered the courage to have it, Sage had already been there and done that) and she certainly hadn’t been ready for Sage to graduate from high school.

But here she was, all the same, helping Sage pack her room.

“Carly, you know that you don’t have to help,” Sage sat on her bed and smiled fondly at the woman who had gone out of her way to adopt her and be the first real mother she’d ever known.

Carly sighed, “No, the best way to accept this is to help you pack.” She reached for a sweater and sighed again. “I remember when I bought this for you.”

Sage smirked. “Me, too. It was two weeks ago.” She reached across the bed and squeezed Carly’s hand. “I know you think you’re losing me. Believe me, Uncle Zo can’t hide it either. But it could have been worse.”

“How?” Carly demanded, failing to see how anything could be worse than her first baby leaving her. It didn’t matter that Carly had known Sage for two years and had only adopted her a year ago. Sage was her daughter, her family and Carly protected no one like she protected family.

“Well,” Sage drawled. “I could have gone to Yale to be with Lucas and Kyle.” She patted Carly’s shoulder. “But I’m staying in Port Charles with Maxie and Dillon. We’re going to PCU. And Georgie and Lu will join us in another year. And then Lucas and Kyle are coming back for grad school. It’s really going to work out, Carly. Just the way we planned it.”

Morgan Apartment: Dining Room/Studio

Elizabeth Morgan slowly set the cordless phone back on its base and let her fingers tap restlessly against the table on which the phone sat. That had been her obstetrician, Dr. Kelly Lee, who was just reporting that the results of Elizabeth’s fertility tests had come back positive.

There was no reason she hadn’t conceived another child in the year that she and Jason had been trying. No blockage, no abnormalities–everything was squeaky clean and perfect. Kelly had just told her that she was probably stressing out over it and putting too much pressure on her body to come through.

It would happen.

Elizabeth put the phone call out of her mind and turned back to her sketching. In the year since she had finally married Jason, her art career had finally turned into…a career. She’d had her first show six months ago and was due to follow its success with another in a few months. She’d quit Kelly’s and now had all the time in the world to devote to her art, to her husband, and of course, to her beloved daughter, Lila Emily Morgan, who had turned a year old two months ago.

She shook herself out of her melancholy. She had a beautiful little girl and a wonderful life. Another child would only make things better but she was happy with the state of things. She would just concentrate on those for now.

General Hospital: Lobby

“Free at last!” Maxie Jones balled up her volunteer’s uniform and then tossed it in the trash before raised her hands in the air. “Thank God Almighty, I am free at last!”

“You use the best quotes at the most inappropriate times,” Dillon Quartermaine sighed, deeply disappointed. He turned to his girlfriend. “I thought you were going to work on that.”

“Hey, I can’t really blame her,” Georgie Jones remarked. “I only wish that I could be saying goodbye to that uniform.” She held her finger up. “One more year and I will be just as free as Maxie.”

“Oh, come on,” Robin Scorpio rolled her eyes. “The hospital is not that bad.” She reached into the trash bin and removed Maxie’s uniform. “And Norma Rae, this doesn’t belong to you–you’re supposed to turn it into the hospital.”

“Oh, sure,” Maxie rolled her eyes dramatically. “It’s the symbolism of the thing. The principal. Casting off the shackles of my servitude and rising above my oppressors.”

“I bet you miss Paris right now,” Dillon remarked to Robin.

“Oh, quiet you,” Maxie sniffed. She wound her arm through Robin’s and held on to her cousin tightly. “You know you missed me.”

“Desperately,” Robin said dryly. “All that culture and history, that fashion and beauty–it can’t possibly compare to the glory of my dear cousin Maxie.”

Maxie wrinkled her nose. “I know you’re being sarcastic but I’m going to take that as a serious compliment.” She released Robin’s arm and took a step back. “You know what you need?”

“No, don’t answer that, it’s a trick,” Dillon cautioned. “She told that to Sage last week and ended up getting her some sort of piercing in a very odd place.”

“Lucas will love it,” Maxie promised Dillon. “And if Georgie wouldn’t so prim and proper, she’d have one too.” She shook her head. “Never mind Sage. We’re talking about you, Robin.”

“We’re really not,” Robin replied. She started for the parking lot and the trio followed her–she was their ride home after all. Maxie had gotten one speeding ticket too many and Mac had grounded her from the car until she left for college.

“Sure we are. What you need, my gorgeous cousin whom I happen to adore is a man!” Maxie declared with a flourish of her hand–that accidentally whacked someone going through the double doors.

“Son of a–” the guy braced a hand against his bleeding nose.

“Oh, my gosh!” Maxie started to dig through her purse for a tissue. “I am so sorry!”

“Would you believe this isn’t the first time that’s happened?” Dillon told Robin as he removed the packet of tissues from his back pocket and passed them to Maxie’s victim.

“Absolutely,” Robin sighed. “I really am sorry for my cousin–”

“Sincerely,” Maxie cut in. “I talk way too much with my hands and they just start going all over the place. I’ve racked up some serious injuries. Really, totally, unbelievable sorry.”

“It’s okay.” The guy tossed the tissue into the nearby trash can. “My mother was Italian. I’ve seen her break some noses.”

“Well, hey, Maxie doesn’t stop at breaking noses,” Dillon said. “She’s knocked out teeth, dislodged shoulders–”

“I have not, you traitor!” Maxie gasped, betrayed. She whacked Dillon in the shoulder. And then she focused on the guy that she’d maimed and perked up. He was hot.

And he was in Robin’s age bracket.

“Project!” Maxie squealed. “Georgie, Dillon, we have to go to the, ah, well–somewhere else.” She grabbed her sister elbow and dragged her back into the hospital. “Robin, we’ll be right back, I forgot something in the lounge and I absolutely need it for my dorm room.”

Robin watched her cousins and Dillon disappear and turned back to Maxie’s victim. “She gets less subtle with age, it’s really kind of sad,” she sighed, severely put upon. “I’m Robin Scorpio and you were assaulted by Maxie Jones.”

“Patrick Drake, and I can think of worse ways to meet a lovely woman.” He grinned and Robin resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He was one of those guys. “Do you work here?” Patrick continued.

“Yes–I’m a pathologist in the lab,” Robin replied. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around though–”

“I just signed the paperwork today. I’m the new neurosurgeon–I think I’m replacing someone who just retired.”

“Tony Jones,” Robin nodded. “Well–” she leaned back and sighed in relief when she saw Georgie and Dillon practically tugging Maxie towards the exit.

“Do you want to have dinner?” Patrick cut in. He flashed that grin again and Robin was sorry that such a lovely grin and gorgeous dimples were wasted on an obvious womanizer.

“No,” Robin said bluntly.

| Prologue →