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When Cassadines Fall
Perception
The guys gather around the table: Jerry, Pete, Edward, Nikolas and Stefan. Pete takes the drink order-- beer or water depending on the person and sets the drinks at the table. Miz Sophia waves her hand to get them to be seated. The stock pot is too big to be easily handled within the kitchen let alone brought to the table. Instead she and Maddy dish up in the kitchen and bring the shallow bowls to the table for the guests. Over a portion of Uncle Ben's rice is a generous ladle of the seafood gumbo. The roux might provide color, the okra the base vegetable but the stars of the stew are the spice as well as the oyster, crab and shrimp, lots of shrimp. Maddy puts out slices of french bread to go along with the dish. The women slide into their seats. Jerry inhales sharply. "I think I'm in love."
"You haven't even tried it yet." Sophia dismisses. "Just like your father. Cupboard love." She preens just a little though. She'd always appreciated a man with healthy... appetites.
"If it tastes as good as it smells I'm divorcing my wife and marrying you."
Maddy laughs and tears off a piece of french bread leaving it on the side of her plate. She spoons a mouthful of the soup/stew. She'd missed this. She watches Nikolas' face as he tries it hesitantly. He exhales sharply and reaches for his glass of ice water. He hadn't had something this spicy since trying a chiliburger at Kelly's. Stefan and Edward both take bites. Edward breaks out in a sweat. Stefan pales slightly but takes another bite. "It's a little spicy." Maddy understates as she takes another bite. "So did you have fun playing chess in the park?"
"It was interesting and informative." Stefan nods. His palate has begun to adjust and he's picking up the nuances of the dish. "We were unable to complete a match within the time frame."
"Big surprise there." Maddy quips wryly.
"Madeliene!" Sophia protests disapprovingly.
"Oh no, Ms Moriz. Madeliene and I understand each other well."
"About chess." Maddy clarifies.
"It was... illuminating." Stefan has a sly look on his face for anyone who knew where to look. "And I think it will serve me well in our next match, Madeliene. I have discovered where you learned your tricks."
"Some of them." Maddy says confidently. The conversation goes general and polite as the guests focus on their meal. Maddy gets up to get Jerry and Poppi seconds. She hears a knocking on the door across the hall. Setting the bowls on the counter, she goes to the door and opens it. "Aunt Dara?"
"Maddy." Dara turns around clasps Maddy in a smothering hug. "I came as soon as I heard. How are you?"
"Madeliene? Who is at the door?" Sophia calls out. "Bring them in."
Maddy pulls free of Dara. "I'm fine. Come in."
Dara walks into Sophia's apartment. Glancing around she sees the dining room table. Oh the hits just keep coming. Jerry Jacks who she had busted for money laundering. Edward Quartermaine who she'd prosecuted for trespass on Carly Quartermaine's house. And the Cassadines. Great. There were only two people at the table she didn't know. "Hello."
"Aunt Dara, This is Granny Sophia. She was Lisette's neighbor. And this is Pete Robideau. A friend of mine from the neighborhood.
Dara stiffens as she takes in the tall black man who rises to his feet with all the other men as he sees Dara. "Robideau." She says softly. Just as O'Meara had said.
"Madeliene, set a place for your Aunt. She's had a long trip." Sophia suggests.
"Actually I was hoping to get to talk to you, Maddy.... alone." Dara says softly. "I just came from the police station."
Now Maddy is the one straightening and stiffening. "Granny Sophia, I'm going to talk to Aunt Dara over at Lisette's. We'll be back soon."
"You made the dessert, Baby. Don't be long. Maybe you'll get a marriage proposal from Mr Jacks as well." Sophia's eyes narrow. Something was up. Something not good.
Maddy nods but doesn't answer. She leads Dara to the apartment across the landing stopping briefly to pick up the cleaning supplies she'd left there. "Okay we're alone now."
"Why didn't you call me? We could have come down here together." Dara asks softly.
"I wasn't thinking. Poppi's son Ricky showed up where I was staying and he brought me down here."
"Yes, where were you staying?"
Maddy opens her mouth to answer then stops. "What the hell is going on here? Some kind of interrogation? My mother, your sister, is dead and you are asking me where I was staying in Port Charles?!" Maddy impatiently starts cleaning the kitchen putting a twist tie on the overflowing garbage bag and starting another. She starts scrapping dishes and plates stacking them on the side of the sink. "Don't you care about that at all?!"
"Of course I do!" Dara protests. "I couldn't do anything for Lisette but I want to be here for you. I walk into that room..." Dara points across the hall. "... and I see you sitting with Cassadines and the biggest criminal element in the southeast! A man who very well could have been responsible for my sister's death."
"O'Meara!" Maddy spits. "Your first stop isn't the hospital, or the funeral home but to see a cop! And a cop who is more interested in pinning something on Poppi than in finding the guy who beat Lisette to death! Haven't you learned anything from knocking boots with Taggart? Can't you see a guy with an agenda? An ax to grind?"
"I'm not an idiot, Madeliene. Of course I picked up on it. But I've also been in the business long enough to know if something's smoking then there's a fire. Of course my first stop was the police station! How do you think I found out the address where my sister lives? It isn't from you or Lisette. I had to find out something happened from Alexis Davis!"
"Excuse me for not doing this the right way! I didn't have time to read the manual on whom to notify when your mother is beat beyond recognition! I didn't call anyone; my only priority was getting here."
Dara winces. "Okay time out." Dara takes a deep breath. She pulls out a chair from the dinette and sits down. She runs a hand over her face. This was so off track and needed to be pulled back on before they both said something that couldn't be taken back. "Honey, I wasn't there for you when you were coming up. I want to be here for you now. This isn't about me. I won't make it about me. I'm sorry for the crack about Alexis.
I'm glad someone told me. But I'm still behind. I need someone to bring me up to speed. So yes, I stopped at the police station. That is what I do. I have questions or start feeling lost I find a cop. I asked for the guy investigating, and I got O'Meara. I take it you don't like him." Dara's voice is carefully calm. She rises to her feet and takes off her jacket. Going over to the sink she starts running hot water and squeezes in dish detergent. Looking around for gloves and then when not finding any just digs in anyway. Lisette is a slob, always has been.
"O'Meara wants one thing-- Poppi's head on a plate. And he will use me, you, Lisette-- anyone to get it. Mama was killed by her lover. Domestic violence I think you've heard of it. There is no huge conspiracy here; it wasn't a mob hit. She wasn't hit by a street car. Something set Billy Bob off and he decided to make his point with his fists. It wasn't the first time; it was definitely the last. The cops aren't looking for him. They're more interested in pinning this on Poppi."
"Not the first time?" Dara hones in on that. "Who is this Billy Bob?"
"Nobody you would have liked or invited over for dinner. I hated the guy's guts. Total user who glommed onto Lisette." Maddy hauls the garbage can over to the fridge and opening it up, starts throwing things out indiscriminantely emptying it. Anything that looks like a chemistry experiment gets to keep it's container. "I tried to talk to her about him, Granny Sophia tried to talk to her. Nothing touched her... she was in love. She said they were passionate. HA It was a coin toss on who would have the black eye when I got home from school-- Lisette or Billy Bob."
"Mutual battery. I've seen more than few cases." Dara murmurs. She rinses the dishes she's washed and sets them in the rack. "There is no reasoning with them... not until they wake up. All you can do is lock them up and hope that it gives them time to think."
"Yeah, but then you have a cop like O'Meara. Oh yeah, he was sniffing around and he was willing to help but he wanted a little something from me in return. Wanted me to start snitching for him. Tell him things that were going on in the neighborhood. He probably volunteered for this case. He started in as soon as I got here. But is he trying to find Billy Bob? Oh no! He thinks Billy Bob is dead and wants to find out who killed him."
"Do you think he's dead?"
"Who cares? Its not going to change anything. I just don't want him anywhere near me because I will kill him."
Dara winces. Premeditation. "Think that, don't say it. Not even if they find a body-- especially if they find a body."
"Always the lawyer." Maddy shakes her head. Finishing up with the fridge she ties off the bag. Going over to the dinette she starts sorting through the paper on top of it-- old bills and stuff marked occupant. She passes dishes to Dara by the sink.
"Where is Lisette now?"
"I don't know for sure. Either the coroner's office or the funeral home might have picked her up by now. Poppi is taking care of that."
Dara frowns. "That's wrong. We should take care of this. That's just wrong."
Maddy takes a deep breath and then another. "Poppi knows people; he's doing what he can to make this easier. Poppi had to deal with planning his own mother's funeral and didn't want to put me through that. I trust him."
"Well I don't know him."
"Who's fault is that?"
"Maddy...." Dara feels her way. "O'Meara says..."
"O'Meara is an ass; I already told you that. O'Meara has done nothing for me. When my bike was stolen... my only source of transportation and what I needed in order to make money, did O'Meara get it back for me? NO! Poppi did. Did Lisette teach me how to drive? NO! Poppi did. While you were off in your fancy college getting your fancy degrees were you checking up on me? NO! Poppi was. I will not hear bad about Poppi. EVER." Maddy starts stuffing trash into the bag harder and harder as she gets more and more ticked.
Nikolas looks over at the door for about the hundreth time. This was going on too long. He'd absently ate the gumbo, even had seconds, but his distraction doesn't go unnoticed. Finally he stiffens in preparation to pushing away from the table.
"No." Stefan puts a hand on his arm.
"They don't get along." Nikolas insists.
"She's family. Madeliene will not welcome nor appreciate your intervention." Stefan reminds.
"She's an idiot." Edward mutters. "Why else would she be with that flatfoot Taggart rather than my grandson?"
Pete looks over at Sophia. "This is the aunt? The one on the straight and narrow who Maddy went to stay with in Port Charles?"
Sophia nods answering Pete but her explanation is for Nikolas who is still chaffing under Stefan's direction to wait. "They have to work it out. I'm sure Dara is a good girl. Madeliene never told me any different. But Maddy has her own prejudices, prejudices Lisette passed on. Lisette was always a bit jealous of the success her sister made of her life. And I think that Maddy is a little bitter that her Aunt never checked up on them. She forgets neither she nor Lisette called Dara, as far as I know. When Maddy wanted to leave New Orleans, Dara did come through for her."
"Straight and narrow is right." Jerry takes a sip of his beer. "Watch out, mate. Miss Jenson is law and order all the way-- as assistant district attorney for the County of Port Charles and she is warming her toes on the backside of the hardest assed cop of Port Charles-- Marcus Taggart. I bet she just loved walking in here and seeing all of us." Jerry indicates with a finger around the table. "Her name was on the bottem of the plea agreement that got me out of the business for a year."
Edward grumbles and then mumbles. "And on the bottem of mine too." In a louder voice he complains. "But that was all your fault, Jacks!"
"My fault, old man? You were the one half in and half out of a window at Caroline's house."
"It's my grandson's house!" Edward blusters.
"It's Caroline's house. He gave it to her."
"Idiot! And he only gave her half!" Edward pushes away from the table and stalks out to the back porch to calm down (and eat his last praline defiantly.)
"Did Mr Quartermaine just call you an..." Sophia can't believe the way the lunch conversation has gone.
"Nope," Jerry says cheerfully. "He's referring to his grandson, AJ, Carly's husband. Edward doesn't agree with the family tradition of men in his family giving their wives the house. Edward knows he can browbeat his son and grandson but their wives make the old goat toe the line."
"Giving the wife the house." Pete repeats shaking his head. If there was one thing he was glad of it was that while he had to pay his ex through the nose and would until she died or remarried she'd never been able to touch his holdings. Those were being held in reserve for Ricky.
"Practically a Port Charles tradition. The Cassadines don't count since they are a fairly recent import and they own half the world anyway. Women own the property in PC-- the men just make a lot of noise. My wife owns where we live. Her sister-in-law owns the house she lives in. Carly owns half of hers and she'll probably get the rest before she's done. And the younger set is branching out from personal real estate. Maddy's friend Emily owns a big chunk of a company called Deception. And Maddy hasn't been doing too shabby with her own businesses." Jerry explains.
"The Cassadines take care of their own." Stefan asserts coolly.
Jerry grins. "Yeah, I've seen how that works. Paternalistic bastards."
Nikolas wrenches his arm from beneath Stefan's. "That's it. It's gone on long enough." He pushes back from the table dodging Stefan's outreached hand.
"Nikolas!" Miz Sophia's voice stops him in his tracks. She continues easily setting her napkin by her dish. "Tell Madeliene we're ready for dessert and she still has to make the topping."
"Right. I'll do that." Nikolas strides to the door shutting it behind him just short of a slam.
"I apologize for my nephew's... impulsiveness." Stefan tells Sophia.
"He's young." Sophia excuses. "And doesn't seem to get that Maddy can take care of herself."
Stefan shakes his head. "To the contrary, Nikolas knows Madeliene is both enterprising and self sufficient just that she shouldn't have to be at this sad time." course that isn't quite true. Nikolas had reacted in a similiar manner when he believed Robideau had been in Port Charles to take Madeliene away, long before her mother's death. But there is no reason to give Jacks more ammunition for his barbs.... paternalistic bastards... indeed!
"Why don't you gentleman go out onto the back porch? It will be a bit before dessert is ready." Sophia suggests. Sometimes there is just a little too much testoterone for comfort. Stefan, Pete and Jerry take her up on it. Stefan remains on the porch at the opposite end from Edward. Pulling out his cell phone he decides to check in with Alexis. Pete and Jerry walk down to the end of the property.
Pete waits until they reach the property line. "Paternalistic bastards?" He repeats with a quirked brow.
"I warned you about the Cassadines back in Port Charles. They're a scary bunch."
"Madeliene seems confident in her dealings with them."
"That's cause she hasn't crossed them yet. The count wasn't kidding when he said they take care of their own." Jerry warns. "And I mean that in all it's connotations. People who cross the Cassadine have a habit of disappearing and only turning up years later-- if at all. They've got that whole royal inbreeding thing going on... I don't think there is a sane one in the bunch."
"Jerry." Pete shakes his head in disbelief. "What you're describing I'm not seeing. Cassadine and the boy both appear to be tightly wrapped. In Cassadine's case maybe too tightly."
"Yeah, keep thinking that, mate. And while you're chewing on that, start putting together Cassadine's comment about them taking care of their own with the way little Nikky was acting at the table. And you... you watch your back around Jensen. She's an ambitious woman who got a lot of mileage out of taking my family down. You'd be quite the feather in her cap."