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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Fifteen
Reality Check Bouncing
Carly's property above the Deception spa. Emily throttles down on the motorcycle as to not annoy the horses. As she comes up the way she sees Carly four wheel drive with the BRN2SHOP custom plates parked by the office end of the structure. Emily parks beside it and checking first in the office walks around to the corral. Carly is up on Mr Roberts in the corral. Carly is dressed in black riding pants and black boots that are finally really getting broken in now that Carly is riding everyday. Her concession to the heat of the summer is the tank top she wears. Emily leans up against the fence to watch. Carly circles the corral changing gaits smoothly. Emily can't see the cues that Carly gives the horse with imperceivable pressure with her legs and subtle hands on the reins. Finally Carly swings down from Mr Roberts, leading him to where Emily stands. She unsaddles the horse and takes off the bridle. "Go Play, ya big baby." Carly instructs the horse who nuzzles up against her affectionately. Mr Roberts takes off to find the vet student's palamino.
"Damn, you're good." Emily compliments then wonders. "Where is Michael?"
"Come on I'll show you." Carly has Emily climb over the corral fence and go to the back of the building. One of the unused stalls had been converted into a playroom with its own little corral that had been child proofed. Michael's there talking to his own rocking horse. He's dressed like his mama including riding helmet.
"OH my gosh!" Emily laughs. "That is too precious for words and I want pictures. Does he get thrown often?"
"Not as much as he used to. And he always climbs back on." Carly says proudly. "I thought that you were at Deception today?"
"Only a half day. Got all my meetings done and then got out of there. I received a package at work and didn't really want to open it there."
"From whom."
"Gary Winslow."
"That's the designer from the shoot on Saturday right? The one with attitude?"
"They all have attitude. If they didn't think they were God's gift they'd end up being crushed by the business." Emily excuses Gary. "And I want to know what he sent but I really didn't want to have it at the house or the company where the Q's might find it."
"I'm really getting the feeling that I should have been at this shoot."
"There was no way that I could call you that early in the morning besides I handled the problems. Where is Rita?"
"She was riding all morning. We had lunch in town at Johnny's and then she decided to stay there to meet her sister. Rita is a bright kid. She's already realized if I spend too much time around her sister, Viki, there is going to be blood shed."
"I got to see the pretty Miss Viki today at General Hospital. You were right. She's moved onto greener pastures."
"Tossing her cap at one of the Doctors?"
"Nope going for big game, I think she is angling to bag herself a Cassadine. Women like that just give all of us a bad name, you know?"
Carly winces. "At this point I think I'm going to have to say No Comment." Carly changes the subject. "I can't believe that you haven't opened that package yet. It would just KILL me." Carly opens the gate to the kiddy corral and picks up Michael. She walks through the stables to the office. Getting comfortable on the couch with Michael. "So where is it?" Emily goes out to her bike, pulls the package out of the Harley's saddlebags and brings it back into the office.
"Okay here goes nothing." Emily tears into the package. Inside there is a note. She reads it outloud. "I took your advice and sent the dress off to Stevie Nicks. I made you a copy of the tape of the shoot and wanted you to have this for bailing me out. Holding you to your word, Gary."
"What word?"
"I said that if he was ever in town I'd take him to Luke's. OH MAN. I don't believe this!" Emily holds up the leopard print outfit. "This one was my favorite. I can't believe he GAVE it to me."
Carly takes one look at the outfit-- "You think that would fit me?"
Emily laughs. "Maybe but I think that the you would be a little over the top if you know what I mean."
"Try it on I want to see." Carly demands. Emily goes into the bathroom and changes into the designer outfit. Carly wolf whistles when she sees it. Emily turns around showing off the outfit. "Oh that is IT. I'm telling AJ; I want a Winslow. He'd love to see me in an outfit like that. We'd never go out but he'd love the outfit." Carly fans herself. "Hot hot hot!"
"You got a VCR?"
"Yeah over here. My boarder, the vet student, uses it sometimes for homework assignments. I walked in one time when she was watching a tape on an eye surgery for some dog that had gotten hit by a car." Carly shudders. "It was disgusting. Popping the eye ball back in and then sewing the lid shut to give it time to heal..."
"Carly STOP! Neither one of us is EVER going to take up a career in medicine and there is a reason why!" Emily demands. She walks over to the VCR and pops in the tape. Gary's set up had captured everything from start to finish that had been caught by Anderson's camera. Emily laughs when Carly starts hooting at one spot. Her comments are the same as Em's had been.
"OH Edward is going to kill you and then the designer when he sees that outfit!" Carly comments on the glittery showcase of Emily's frame.
"We'll just have to make sure that he doesn't read the Feb issue of Vogue."
"You KNOW someone is going to bring it to his attention. And then it's back to the chastity belts for you!"
"There was somethin' I wanted to talk to you about. Something we really couldn't discuss in front of AJ, Jerry and Bobbie at the family dinner last night...."
"Shoot."
"I want to make a deal and I promise to hold up my end if you do the same."
"What kind of deal?" Carly asks suspiciously.
"I PROMISE to scheme and plot the downfall of Katherine Bell. I'll make sure that she is so totally humiliated that she can't show her face in Port Charles. Dye her hair green, make sure there are pictures of her in every tabloid with spinich in her teeth, destroy her relationship with Grandfather, something but please, please, please in return you have to promise me that you'll leave Ned alone." Carly starts shaking her head. "Come on, Carly! Ned is to me what Jerry is to you. He's my safe place. I need Ned. I'll work on him not being such an ass to AJ; Alexis will too I'm sure." Emily pleads.
Carly sighs. "Fine, I promise."
"You're not crossing your fingers or anything?" Emily asks suspiciously.
"No, I mean it this time. I promise I'll leave Ned alone." Carly replies disgruntled. "But you're asking alot, Emily. This one is huge. I want videotape."
"Videotape of what?"
"Katherine's downfall. If I have to give up my plans on Ned, I want something I can watch over and over again to remind me exactly why I made the promise."
Johnny's restaurant.
Rita had been stopping by so often that she is now familiar with the routine. She walks through the dining room straightening things as she goes. She checks the waitress prep area to make sure everything is stocked so the waitresses won't have to be running to the storeroom to get something in the middle of the dinner rush. Johnny recognizes her footsteps when she comes back into the kitchen and doesn't look up from his prep work. "How was riding today?"
"Great. I'm still working on jumps. Mr Roberts is so smooth all I have to do is stick to him like glue."
"That appears to be something you're good at." Johnny replies wryly.
"Got a postcard from the folks. They're going to be back in a couple of days. I won't be able to go riding as much when I'm not staying with Carly." Rita sighs leaning up against the prep area as she watches Johnny work. "There is a competition at the end of summer and I just have to win. Or at least do better than that runt, Lucas Jones. He gets to go riding ALL the time 'cause he has his own horse. But Mr Roberts is better; he's a horse not a little pony. You're going to come right?"
"I should have someone hired by then so Ma and I will both be able to go." Johnny confirms. Rita goes over and puts on the apron that Johnny has taken to keeping ready for her. "Aren't you suppose to call your sister and tell her where you're meeting her."
Rita grimaces "Do I have to?" Johnny just stares at Rita, a trick he'd learned from Mr Morgan. "All right, all right. I'm calling her." Rita dials the number on the kitchen phone. "Viki? It's Rita." Rita stops talking she tries to get a word in edgewise with no luck. She looks over at Johnny and rolls her eyes with her free hand she makes a motion like someone yak, yak, yak. Johnny laughs and goes back to work. "Viki, Daddy said I was SUPPOSE to call you. I know that you don't like Carly. I'm not calling from there. I'm at the restaurant with Johnny." Rita's face falls and she turns away from Johnny not saying anything out loud. Finally Rita hangs up the phone. "Viki is coming to get me." Rita takes off her apron and sits on the chair in the back of the kitchen. She doesn't say anything but there is an occasional sniff. Johnny is a bit freaked this is not the Rita that he'd grown used to pestering him. It seems like the longest twenty minutes of his life until one of his staff tells him that Viki is there. Johnny directs her back into the kitchen area.
"I was at the hospital doing volunteer work." Viki says caustically.
"You haven't volunteered for anything since that yucky kissing booth at the high school fair." Rita snaps back. Johnny smirks. This was the Rita he was used to.
Viki sees Johnny's grin and flushes with anger. She takes Rita by the arm and leads her into the back room to talk Rita privately. "I don't know what in the hell has gotten into you lately. Your judgement has always been lousy. You've always dragged home the least desirable trolls claiming they were your new best friends. I hoped that FINALLY you'd done something right with the horseback riding. Instead of using the opportunity to meet the right kind of people, you continue to associate with white trash, like Caroline Quartermaine, and hoodlums. I'm going to tell Daddy, maybe ballet class would be better suited to this gawky awkward stage you seem to be permenantly stuck in. Mother would be worse than disappointed in you; she'd be EMBARASSED."
Rita bursts into tears. "It's not true, take it back!"
"And now you're going to cry about it?! Viki sneers.
"SHUT UP." Johnny says sternly having overheard everything Viki pulled on Rita. Rita runs to him and hugs him around the waist sobbing into his shirt.
"You can't talk to me that way." Viki glares at Johnny.
"I'll talk to you the same way you talk to her. You show her respect; I show you respect. Are you so small that you have to pick on a child and threaten to take away something she loves to do? If that is the lesson your mother taught you then I pity you."
"Don't you DARE talk about my mother! You, bastard hoodlum son of a murdering slut."
Johnny picks up Rita's face so she is looking directly at him. "Did you hear what she just said?" Rita nods. "Do you believe what she said about me or my mother?"
"No. She's wrong!"
"Then why do you believe what she says about you?" Johnny says softly wiping away Rita's tears. "Go into the kitchen, put on your apron and begin to get the salads ready for the dinner rush. You don't have any more time to waste tonight with this." Rita hesitates. "Go." Rita leaves without looking back and Johnny steps closer to Viki within range of a whisper, "I know you. I've dealt with people like you all my life. Bullies who get off on destroying the confidence of their betters. I watched my mother kill one before my eyes when I was younger than Rita and I wished that I had done it myself. Be smart, Sister. Your time of bullying Rita is over. I won't tolerate it; my mother won't tolerate it. I promise you now, on my mother's life which I value more than anything in this world, anything you do to Rita I will return to you twofold. You berate her; I'll berate you. You ever lay another finger on her and I'll find you whatever rock you've crawled under."
"My Father..."
"Our Father..." Johnny interrupts. "... was evidently too preoccupied after his wife's death to teach you any manners or respect. If need be, I'll correct that oversight."
"Don't you DARE threaten me. Do you really think that MY father would believe you over me?"
"Yes, he would; I said he was preoccupied not blind or stupid." Johnny steps back from the furious Viki and his voice returns to a normal volume although his tone is flat and cold. "You are not welcome in my restaurant. Will you leave on your own or shall I escort you out?"
"Fine, I didn't want to be here in the first place. I'll just get my sister and we'll be out of here."
"Rita stays. You go." Johnny says blocking Viki's access to the kitchen. "Use the door behind you."
"I'll tell my father about this!" Viki protests
"Please do." Johnny opens the door behind Viki and with the placement of his body backs her out until she is in the back alley and then shuts the door and locks it. He frowns. He'd made promises that would be difficult to keep. Walking back into the kitchen, he checks that Rita is hard at work. "What is the number where Ms Benson is." Seeing Rita's confused look. "Mrs Quartermaine-- Carly." Rita calls out the number up at the property. Johnny picks up the phone and dials the property. "Ms Benson."
"Damnit Johnny. If you can't get it right-- just call me Carly. I haven't been Ms Benson for months."
"Fine...Carly, the way you go through last names can you understand my confusion?" Johnny reminds wryly.
"You do know that Rinaldo was my favorite bodyguard right?"
"But you never got to be best buds with his mother and sister now, did you?"
"Okay, I'm sitting down. What happened to Rita?"
"Rita is no longer allowed to be alone with her sister, Viki. Are we clear? Even after Ma and the Judge return. IF she is with you I hope you'll respect my wishes."
"Oh no problem." Carly says grimly reading through the lines quite clearly. "The bitch did it again, didn't she? Was verbally abusive to Rita?"
"This has happened before?"
"The day of the wedding. I tried to give her a reality check then but it must have bounced."
"This one didn't. And if it happens again, she will be the one to bounce."
"Agreed. I'll pick up Rita on my way home at five." Carly hesitates, "Can I get an order to go? It's AJ's night to attempt to cook."
Johnny grins his mood lightened despite what had just happened. "I'll send it out with Rita."