Friday, December 17, 2010

Carly & Jax’s Home: Living Room

Carly had not particularly missed the part about motherhood where her toddler would wake up and demand to be fed with loud screams.

Cecily was definitely her daughter.

Carly yawned and set Cecily in her playpen where the eighteen-month-old immediately reached for her plastic piggy bank that made sounds when you slipped in the plastic coins. If it kept her daughter happy, she was all for it.

The last month had been one big blur from Jason’s first frantic call to the woman Carly had flipped out on in the restaurant lasst for speculating about Elizabeth and why she’d abandoned her family.

Carly could and had said a lot about Jason’s wife, but Elizabeth had been a mother first and foremost. It just didn’t feel like she would have left voluntarily, which left Carly with more sinister explanations.

She yawned and reached for the newspaper Jax had left. The usual headline about the missing nurse was plastered across it, but the article would say nothing Carly didn’t already know, so she bypassed that and went straight to the weather. At least that wouldn’t be slanted against her best friend.

She heard the door click open and she twisted on the sofa to find Jason standing on the landing. She shot up. “Jase—what’s up? You’re here early.”

“I need to ask you a favor.” Jason stepped into the living room and scrubbed at his eyes. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in the last month and Carly wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it was the truth. She thought he might actually be dressed in the same clothes as the morning Elizabeth had vanished. The green sweater was wrinkled and his jeans had seen better days.

“Anything,” Carly pledged.

“I need…” he paused.  “I need you to look after the kids for a while.”

“Of course,” she replied, surprised. It was unusual for her to be actually be asked to look after the Morgan children. Over the last two years, Carly and Elizabeth had fallen into a pattern of switching the children back and forth so often that she almost felt like Cameron and Jake were her boys, as well. “For how long?”

“I’m not sure,” Jason admitted. “There are some people I have to track down. I have to know if…” He shook his head.

“Jason…” She hesitated. “There’s a lot of gossip going around, a lot of stupid people opening their mouths without knowing anything about you or Elizabeth. I know you don’t believe what’s being said.”

“Which rumors?” Jason asked quietly. “The one where Elizabeth was afraid of me and planned her disappearance? The one where I killed her myself because I was tired of her? Or the one where Elizabeth didn’t want to be a wife or a mother anymore and just took off.” He shook his head. “No. I don’t believe any of it. Elizabeth didn’t disappear on her own. She was taken against her will.”

“Elizabeth and I didn’t get along much,” Carly said after a long moment. “And I’ll admit it was mostly my fault. But she loved her kids, Jason. No one who knows her listens to the idiots out there.”

“It doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “I have to track down some people to find out if they had anything to do with this and I don’t know how long it will take.”  He hesitated. “There are some noises coming from the Spencers. Lucky, mostly.  A little bit of Audrey and her brother Steven.”

“About the kids?” Carly demanded, her protective instincts kicking into overdrive. “Well, there’s nothing they can do about that. Jake and Jules are yours biologically and you adopted Cameron. Cam doesn’t have any blood relatives left. Lucky’s not his actual father and it’s not like Audrey really raised Elizabeth. Hell, she’s not even really Elizabeth’s grandmother.” She scoffed. “And where the hell has Steven been?”

“It doesn’t matter. I think they’re going to fight my custodial rights to Cameron,” Jason said. “I would put this off and wait until that’s resolved but I can’t let the trail get cold, Carly—”

“Of course not,” Carly replied. “You have to go find Elizabeth and bring her home. You take care of that, I’ll keep your kids safe and together. Jax and I will love them and care for them like our own. You know that.”

“I do,” Jason responded quietly. “I’m having Diane draw up papers to give you temporary guardianship. I asked her to make it as airtight as she can because I don’t know how far Lucky, Audrey or Steven will go but I want to be prepared.”

“Of course.” Carly crossed to him and put her hand on his arm. “I know how tough this last month has been and I wish there was more I could do.” She paused. “When will you go?”

“As soon as the papers are signed.”

“You’ll find her,” Carly said, in the same confident tone she’d used when Michael had fallen into his initial coma. This was different, she swore to herself. Elizabeth wasn’t lying in a hospital bed with a bullet in her head. Clearly, one of Jason’s enemies had taken Elizabeth and was toying with him before arranging for her release.

Jason would find Elizabeth and bring her home and in a year or two, no one would even remember this event.

She was sure of it.

Saturday, July 13, 2024

Port Charles Library

 

Juliet tapped her fingers against the desk before clicking on another obituary. Helena’s death had been featured in the major newspapers in the area here, but also in London, in Paris, many areas of Italy and it seemed like every single Greek newspaper in print at the time.

Almost none of them were in English, so Juliet had her translator by her side and her father’s computer guru, Damien Spinelli on a teleconference. Spinelli was in Paris at another fashion show with his significant other, Maxie Jones, but had graciously agreed to help with her search. He, of course, told her that he had done all he could at the time to assist the great Stone Cold, but all trails had been cold almost immediately.

But Spinelli told her a piece of information that gave Juliet great hope – Jason had never looked into Helena Cassadine. Helena hadn’t been in Port Charles for five years previous to her mother’s disappearance and Elizabeth had been out of the feud for almost a decade anyway. It just didn’t make sense for Helena to have kidnapped her.

But the coincidences were too great. Nikolas had spied a woman resembling Elizabeth near the estate where Helena died? Helena died mere months after the disappearance? The fact that Helena had already made a woman disappear without a trace for two years in the 1980s. How could anyone dispute this?

Of course people could. And would. They had given Elizabeth Morgan up for dead almost from the moment she’d left. Even her own brothers believed it. Only her father held out hope and Juliet realized it was more of a survival mechanism. He had had to compartmentalize his loss in order to raise the children his wife had left behind but Juliet worried what would happen to him when they were gone. Jake would be gone to college in another year and she would be gone in four.  Cam was graduating and then going on to medical school.

In just a few short years, Jason would be left alone in that house and Juliet wasn’t sure how he’d handle that.

She rubbed her eyes. “I’m not sure how many more I can read without going blind,” she confided to Spinelli. “I wish I could get this database at home.”

“Sorry, Jules,” Spinelli shrugged. “I can’t do that across the ocean. If I were in the city—”

“No, it’s okay.” She yawned and clicked on another obituary. They were all the same. Helena Cassadine, almost ninety years old. Survived by one grandson, Nikolas. One great-grandson, Spencer. No mention of Alexis or Kristina and Molly. And no mysterious female.

Searching obituaries hoping someone would list an extra woman in Helena’s life had seemed almost futile from the beginning but short of going to Greece and searching for this woman Nikolas had seen, she didn’t have much to go on.

Maybe in a few weeks, she could convince Amalia to go. She wouldn’t pull that kind of thing off without her help after all. Juliet was never  good at pulling off the grander schemes without Amalia’s devious nature. Amalia always found the holes in their plans before they ruined everything.

Juliet finally found the obituary from the village near the estate. She scanned it and she almost missed it the first time, too used to reading the same thing. But something caught her eye and she went back, almost incredulous.

…survived by a grandson, Nikolas and a great-grandson, Spencer of London, Englad.. Also survived by a granddaughter, Maia Cassadine…

Maia Cassadine. Juliet tabbed to a search engine and did a quick search. Only a few hits existed – the obituary and a small mention of the art and crafts store Maia Cassadine ran in the same village. No pictures to make life easier. But still…an arts and craft store? A mysterious granddaughter out of nowhere?

She forced herself to take a deep breath. The Cassadine family was large and varied. How could she know for sure that no such relative existed?

“Spinelli, check out this obituary – Maia Cassadine, a granddaughter.”

“That is quite coincidental,” Spinelli mused. She could see something in his eyes that told her that maybe they were really on to something. She knew Spinelli felt guilty for never finding his mentor’s wife and the failure had been with him all this time. To bring home Mrs. Stone Cold (Spinelli had long ago grown out the nickname thing but he had been calling certain people certain names for so long that she wasn’t even sure he knew their real names) would redeem him in his own eyes.

“And I found this article –” Juliet sent the link and she could see that Spinelli saw the same connection that she had. “But before I tell anyone about this, I need to be sure that this woman doesn’t actually exist.”

“I’ll check birth records and dig in deeper to her past,” Spinelli pledged. “Shouldn’t take more than a few days, Jules. I’ll transfer whatever I find.” He hesitated. “I hope this works for you. For Stone Cold and the guys, too. You all deserve this and I’ll do my best to find out if this is for real or a dead end.”

“Thanks, Spinelli. My dad’s lucky to have you in the family.” She grinned. “We all are. Tell Maxie hi for me.”

“Will do.”

Juliet signed off the teleconference. Even if she never found her mother, at least she hadn’t given her up for dead without looking as hard as she could to find the truth.

And maybe she could have a miracle and she’d find her mother alive and well somewhere. It had happened for the Spencer family, why not for hers?

Kelly’s: Courtyard

“I’m going to ban CeCe from our games,” Morgan grumbled. He dropped into a chair and huffed. “Mal is completely useless with her there and I’m not entirely comfortable with her dating him at all.”

“Oh, it’s a little late to pull the big brother routine now,” Cameron scoffed. “They’ve been dating for like three months. And if Aunt Car hasn’t vetoed it based on his parentage, then you’ve got next to no chance of getting CeCe to break up with him.”

“My mother is being mature about the situation,” Morgan said. “Which is altogether new for her. Or maybe enough time has passed since whatever Robin Scorpio did to annoy her happened and Mom’s finally gotten over it.”

“Not likely. Aunt Car doesn’t know how to get over anything that pisses her off. She still grumbles about Sam McCall and that chick has been gone for over a decade.” Cameron glanced through the window into the restaurant where Molly was serving some customers. “What do you think about Molly?”

“She’s my cousin so I don’t think about her at all,” Morgan reminded him. “That’s illegal in about eight states. Probably more.”

“No, no.” He shook his head. “Just in general. Have you heard any rumors or anything about her?”

Morgan frowned. “I don’t pay attention to that shit. Why? Did you hear something?”

“Before you showed up at the court today, Mal was saying that Molly’s…” he shrugged.  “Been around a lot.”

“And he’s still breathing?” Morgan raised his eyebrows. “So what if she’s been with some guys? You’ve not exactly the Virgin Mary yourself. Don’t be an asshole, Cam.” He shook his head. “People call my mother a slut, you know? Still, after all these years. Because it was kind of common knowledge why she moved to town in the first place. And that she had about four different fathers for my brother. And she’s been married a few times. But my dad?” He jerked a shoulder. “Impregnated almost anyone woman who looked at him and slept with the rest. No one ever said a thing about that. It’s a stupid double standard and Molly’s too nice for that.”

“It’s not that she’s been around, I knew…” Cam shifted in his chair and leaned closer to his cousin so he could keep his voice down. “I knew I wasn’t her first and that’s not a big deal to me. As long as she’s not sleeping around with anyone while else we’re together, that’s all I care about.”

“So then why bring it up?” Morgan asked. “I would have knocked the shit out of Mal Drake for opening his damn mouth and anyone else who said anything.”

“The thing is…I think maybe…” Cam hesitated. “She made the first move. On the third date. I wouldn’t have considered it at least until she’d let pick me up at her door. I think maybe she thinks I won’t go out with her if she doesn’t put out.”

Morgan paused. “I guess that might be a possibility. There are a lot of girls who think sex will keep a guy with them. And you do have a certain rep for being a player. Add to that, her mom’s crappy track record and basically her asshole father never being around, it makes sense.”

“Those psych classes are showing,” Cam joked. He tapped his fingers restlessly on the table. “I like her. We’ve got a lot in common and there’s some history there. We’ve known each other most of our lives, you know? She’s not like the other girls I’ve been with.”

“So maybe you tell her that and she knows it’s more than sex.” He shrugged. “Doesn’t sound so difficult. Then again, she is a female. They tend to make everything more complicated than it has to be.”

Zacchara Estate: Conservatory

It was nearly five minutes before Johnny realized he wasn’t alone in the room. He let the strains of a concerto trail off and looked up to find his ex-wife standing near the entrance. The last time Nadine had been in this room with him had been the last time she’d been in the house at all. She’d packed up their daughter that day, went to the house in Port Charles and that had been end of their life together.

It had seemed like they’d come full circle at the time. It was in this room that he’d found out he’d be a father, he’d proposed to her in here and it had ended here.

“The butler let me in,” Nadine said quietly. She stepped forward. “You play even better now than when we were married.” When he said nothing, she cleared her throat. “Amalia plays, you know. I wasn’t sure if she had ever told you.”

“No,” Johnny said. “I found her playing in here one day and she told me she had learned to play on the piano at your house.” He paused. “The one you gave me, in fact. I would have thought you’d burned that long ago.”

“I thought about it,” Nadine admitted. “But then I’d remember you sitting there when Li was just a baby, teaching her to play the scales. And I couldn’t.”

At least there was that. He got up from the piano bench. “Why are you here?” he asked, not really enjoying the trip down memory lane. It was a life that was out of his reach and had been for nearly a decade. He had no interest in remembering things best forgotten.

“Something’s…” Nadine hesitated. “Something has changed in my life and it affects Amalia. We need to discuss it so we can move forward with some kind of agreement.”

Johnny frowned. “Are you sick?” he demanded. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sick—” She chewed on her lips. “Nikolas asked me to marry him and I told him that I was going to think about it.”

“Nikolas?” Johnny repeated. “Cassadine?” He shook his head. “You can’t marry him.”

“Why not?” Nadine planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “At least he’s been in my life for more than five seconds. It’s more than I can say about your second wife. Or your third. Exactly how long did you know Candy and Bambi before you married them?”

“Candace and Bailey,” Johnny corrected through clenched teeth. “And that’s not the point. They weren’t from another country.”

“Which is why we need to discuss the arrangements we’d have to make,” Nadine retorted. “I thought we might want to try leaving the damn lawyers out of things for a change, but clearly you’re not interested in working this out between us—”

“Why the hell would you want to marry him anyway?” Johnny cut in. “You barely know him!”

“Don’t be an idiot,” she snapped. “You know very well Nikolas and I have been close since his surgery. I’ve known him longer than I’ve known you. He’s a good man, he’s a good father and he’ll treat me with respect, which is more than I can say for you—”

“That’s not fair,” he said hotly. “You like to paint our marriage as one long nightmare but you and I both know that’s not the way it was! We were happy, damn it, and I treated you better than I’ve treated anyone I’ve ever known!”

“Right up until you screwed Lulu Spencer!” she threw back. “You couldn’t have her, and here I was, knocked up with your kid. I was a fucking consolation prize and that was completely clear to me when she wandered back into town!”

“Don’t you dare stand there and act like everything that happened was my fault!” He stalked towards her. “I never gave you a single reason to think that I gave a damn about Lulu, but that didn’t stop you from grilling me every time I turned around, demanding to know if I’d seen her or talked to her and as for what happened the day you lost—”

“I don’t want to talk about that day,” Nadine cut in sharply, her lower lip trembling. “I won’t talk about it. You were with her and then you just made it worse by sleeping with her. You can’t deny it—”

“I don’t deny it,” he replied. “I could have lied to you. I didn’t have to come home and tell you the truth but we were always honest with each other and I thought you’d rather hear it from me than have it come from her.”

“I’d rather you hadn’t humiliated me and not done it all!” She dragged her hands through hair. “I wasn’t going through enough at that point? Do you have any idea how hard it was just to get up in the morning? To open my eyes, to get out of bed and pretend that nothing had changed? I really didn’t need to have Lulu Spencer shoved in my face to remind me that my husband had always loved another woman—”

“How was I supposed to know how you were feeling?” he demanded. “After you came home from the hospital, you never talked to me. You never even looked at me. You moved out of our room, for Christ’s sake. How the hell was I supposed to know a damn thing? You blamed me for not being there, like it was my fault—”

“I blamed you for being with her,” Nadine snarled. She turned away from him and took a deep breath, closing her eyes. “I can’t keep doing this anymore, Johnny. It’s supposed to get easier. We’ve been divorced longer than we were together and it just gets harder to look at you, to be around you. It’s not supposed to be this way.”

“So your solution is to marry someone just to get away?” Johnny threw his hands out to the side. “Is that it?”

“No.” Nadine turned around. “I’m marrying Nikolas because he’s a good man and he cares for me. I’m tired of being alone. Any man who might have been interested always seems to back off after a date or two. I don’t know if you’re actually doing anything or maybe it’s a side effect of the Zacchara name, but I just can’t do it to myself anymore. You moved on before I even left this house, why can’t you let me do the same?”

“He lives in another country!” Johnny exploded. “You think I’m going to let you take my daughter away from me? To take her to London so that maybe I’ll get to see her in the summer? You haven’t taken enough from me, you have to take her, too?”

“That’s not what I’m trying to do,” Nadine replied, frustrated. “That’s exactly why I came here, so that we can work out something that works for both of us.”

“We already have,” he said. He crossed his arms, defiantly. “The current arrangement is fine by me.”

“Fine,” Nadine sighed. “I’ll call my lawyer. She’ll contact yours. We’ll hash this out in court. Just like we always do. I was stupid to think we could get along for five minutes.” She stared him from tired eyes. “You’re right. We were happy once. I was happy. And I’m tired of being unhappy, so I’m going to do something to change that. I’m going to marry a man who cares for me and respects me. Nikolas thought you might fight a custody arrangement—”

“Oh, did he?” Johnny scoffed.

“And he agreed that he’d stay in Port Charles for as long as it took to settle any dispute. We want to be married as soon as possible.” She started for the door.

How could she marry Nikolas? The man was stiff and proper. Probably didn’t even know how to yell or show any sort of emotion. How could she say that a marriage to him would be better than theirs?

Johnny had loved her, had given her everything inside of him he’d had to give and now she was willing to waste herself on someone who just wanted her because he wasn’t altogether fond of anyone else?

It was absurd.

He couldn’t let it happen.

Just before she reached the threshold, Johnny strode up behind her, grabbed her arm and whirled back to face him. “He doesn’t love you,” he told her, feeling somewhat desperate now. “He can’t give you love and passion, how can you settle for less?”

“Passion is overrated,” Nadine said simply. “It’s cold and it’s empty without anything to back it up.” The corner of her mouth twisted up to form a sad smile. “And I’m used to settling for less.”

She tugged her arm from him and tried to leave again. This time, Johnny didn’t try words. He grabbed her arm, pulled back and kissed her.

For just a moment, Nadine let herself forget their situation and the reason for it. She just let herself remember how it had felt once to have this man in her life and in her arms. She knew the truth now –

She’d never fallen out of love with her husband.

She jerked away and stepped back, trembling. “I don’t know you thought that would change. I’m marrying Nikolas and there’s nothing you can do stop me.”

Nadine stormed out of the room.

And Johnny remembered that their last encounter in here had ended almost the same way.  He’d grabbed her to change her mind, to convince her that he didn’t want Lulu, that he didn’t even know how it had happened, that Nadine and their life together was all he wanted and somehow, he’d failed to convey any of that.

How could she not know how much he’d loved her then? Or, to his chagrin, how much he obviously still loved her now?

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