 |
||
The Quintessential Q
Chapter Thirty Three
Katherine
*Everything that is going to happen to Katherine Bell has been foreshadowed. You might recall, you might not... it's a great excuse to reread the previous chapters cause y'all know this has been a long time coming.*
Katherine Bell arrives at the Port Charles Hotel using the airport shuttle. The bell man's greeting goes unanswered as he quickly unloads her bags and follows her to the front desk where she picks up her mail that had been held for the few days she had been out of town. Going to the elevators she uses the short trip to sort through her mail. As the doors open at her floor she strides out and makes her way to her suite. Unlocking the door she sighs. What was suppose to be a busy couple of days had ended up stretching into a week. Stretching her neck she runs her fingers through her short blonde locks. All she wanted to do was sleep... well call Nikolas and then sleep. Turning around she blocks the entrance of the bellman. "Give me a second." Looking at the bags she grabs one and lets the other three stand. "Would you drop those off at the dry cleaners. Thanks." Katherine shuts the door in the bellman's face.
"Bitch. Why didn't you say that before I hauled them all up here?" The bellman mutters. He let things slide, he did all the time but Ms Bell was the permanent pain in his ass and she had stiffed him on a tip...again. Katherine goes over to her desk and checks her messages. Nikolas hadn't called while she was out of town. Perhaps there was a message here. He can't duck her calls forever. Ever since AJ had tricked her out of her ELQ shares life had been a little rougher. Edward was still furious with her and the flattery just wasn't working the way it had in the past. Whenever she tried, Edward was so distracted-- it was always Carly this or Emily that. As the message machine rewinds Katherine looks at her reflection. She brushes a finger over nonexistent lines. Maybe her eyes were a little tired but she looked damn good. She had to if she were going to have a shot of keeping Nikolas in her bed and the wolf from the door. As the message machine rewinds to the first message Katherine drops into the chair by the desk. She tosses the mail in the corner of the desk.
"Um... Miss Bell this is your secretary..."
"I know who you are, moron."
"...The presentation is set for 8:15. All the press have RSVP'd. I set your speech up on the teleprompter in the main auditorium. Everyone seems really excited about your trip. Mr Ashton said based on your numbers you get to be employee of the week...."
"Yippee." Katherine rolls her eyes but there is a glint. She knows her stuff and even Ned can't deny it.
"... so you get the parking space... you know the one right in front of the building?"
"Oh Please." Katherine fast forwards through the rest of the message. The mechanical voice of the answering machine tells the story.... you have no more messages.. Katherine picks up the phone and calls Nikolas house. There is no answer. She calls his cell phone. There is no answer there either.
"Damn. What is going on? Nikolas always has his cell phone."
Spook Island. Lucky, Emily and Nikolas gather with Alexis, Stefan. The Bankers had already left for the hotel. Nikolas' cell phone rings once and then he quickly turns off the phone apologizing to the gathering. The distraction has Emily looking down at her watch.
"I hate to do this but I need to get home. I have an early meeting at Deception at 8:30am." Emily looks over at Lucky and Nikolas.
Alexis rises. "I have to be at that meeting too. Ned invited me." Alexis allows a small grin to shine through as she looked at Emily. Emily's eyes narrowed slightly. Had Ned let something slip? He didn't actually know anything...
Alexis winks at Emily and then starts gathering her information together.
"Shall I walk with you to the launch? Let Nikolas and Lucky finish hashing this out among themselves."
Nikolas smothers a groan and leaps to his feet. "That won't be necessary. We've covered enough for tonight. Nothing more can be done until the stocks are authenticated." Nikolas looks over at Lucky for back up. Lucky tilts his head to the side. To save his brother's bacon or not? That was the question. Nikolas had got him into this mess. But payback delayed was payback savored.
"Yo counselor-- could you drop me at Kelly's. Elizabeth should be getting ready to close up and I really hate it when she closes alone." Lucky also rises to his feet.
Alexis looks from Nikolas to Emily and then glances over at Stefan. Years of familiarity have her reading the nonverbal in her brother's cues. "Not a problem. We need to arrange another appointment anyway." Alexis shrugs into her coat.
Lucky takes her briefcase. "Allow me."
"Why thank you, kind sir." Alexis can't decide whether to curtsey or flutter her eyelashes. Not even Ned ever treated her like the little woman. There was definitely something going on. Lucky was a great kid but.... Lucky places a hand at the small of Alexis back and begins to direct her out of the house. As soon as they are outside Alexis pulls away. "Will you please stop... herding me? What in the hell is going on?"
"Lets go down to the docks, I'll be able to show rather than tell then." Lucky insists. He and Alexis make their way down to the dock. Turning around they look back up to the torchlite mansion. Nikolas is escorting Emily down to the docks but they are taking their sweet time. Even in the distance, the torches are enough illumination to see the lingering touches and glances between Nikolas and Emily.
"Oh my." Alexis bites her lip. How in the hell was Ned going to react to this one. He really didn't like her family. And for lots of good reasons.
"Told ya." Lucky says quietly.
"How long has this been going on?" Alexis answers just as softly.
"For Em a lot longer than Nikolas but then the Cassadine's have always been slow on the uptake." Lucky confirms. "Present company excluded of course."
"Oh of Course." Alexis replies and then winces. "Ned is going to have a cow."
"Like I said. You're the exception that proves the rule."
Nikolas pauses at the base of the stairs that go up to the mansion. "Will I get to see you tomorrow?"
Emily shrugs. "I have appointments at Deception in the morning and then school. But I'll be home after four."
Not even wanting to wait the extra minutes it would take for Emily to get from school to home, Nikolas suggests instead, "I'll meet you at the school."
Nikolas runs his hands down Emily's shoulders and arms until he takes both of her hands. He places a gentle kiss on her lips. He fights the temptation to deepen the kiss knowing that Lucky and his aunt are watching. Stepping back, he releases Emily.
"I'll look forward to it." Emily walks down to where Lucky and Alexis wait.
Nik stays at the foot of the stairs. She ignores the questions in Alexis gaze and the knowing in Lucky's.
Katherine steps out of the shower. Wrapping a towel around her hair and a robe around herself, she then clears the condensation from the mirror. Grabbing her evening moisturizer she slathers it on her face and brushes her teeth. Katherine walks over to the bed and climbs on. She reaches for the phone and tries Nikolas' cell phone one more time. There is still no answer. Katherine sets the alarm on her clock and grabs one of the reports that had been messengered over from Deception. Barely two paragraphs were read when she slides down on the bed to get more comfortable. One more paragraph and she is asleep.
The next morning the alarm goes off loud enough to wake the dead. Katherine groans and bats the clock away from her. She goes to run her fingers over her head and groans again. She'd fallen asleep with a wet towel on her head guaranteeing that today was going to be a bad hair day. The day when she was going to have make speeches and oh so graciously accept the accolades of Ned and that little brat Emily. Rising from the bed she makes her way to closet and picks out the outfit that looks best on camera. Automatically picking out the undergarments that go with the outfit Katherine then slides on the skirt that goes with the suit. She strains to pull the zipper up. "What the hell? I didn't eat that many chocolates while I was out of town." Sucking in her gut she gets the zipper up but then breathes shallowly even and pop the zipper separates from the skirt. Katherine steps out of the skirt and reaches for the next one in her closet.
At the mansion, Emily wakes with a smile on her face and stretches easily. Today was the day. She had to get to Deception to make sure everything was all set up: the coffee, the Danishes, the room, the press... the camera. Emily jumps in the shower and just as quickly jumps back out. She braids her hair into an intricate and tight French braid. Somehow she just got the feeling that Katherine was going to be in a hair pulling mood today. And it wouldn't be her own that she was pulling. Emily grins into the mirror. "I've been a bad, bad girl."
Clothes litter the floor, Katherine looks around for her suitcases. She'd have to wear something from them. A few wrinkles wouldn't matter. Katherine tries to convinces herself and then swears. They were all at the dry cleaners. Biting her lip she reaches for the last thing in her closet and then groans. What in the hell had she been thinking? Dynasty was so over and that color... oh hell. It had been one of those mail order impulse purchases when she had been bored and the color was nothing like in the catalogue. What had been a glorious shade of pink in the catalogue had turned into the most hideous pepto pink. And it was polyester gabardine with a rayon lining. She'd end up sweating like a pig under those lights. But all she had to do was get through the presentation and then she'd leave for the day. No way was little Miss Emily going to steal her thunder not today. Not today. Katherine eases into the skirt and sucking in her gut says a little prayer that the zipper would hold... she'd gone through a dozen skirts already.
The zipper slides up smoothly and she takes a little breath, the zipper still holds. Reaching for the matching jacket she shrugs into it wincing at the shoulder pads that would have done a linebacker proud. She looks over at the clock. She was running late, way late. There was no time to cut them out. She buttons the jacket and looks in the full length mirror. "You have got to be kidding?" She steps toward the mirror; the darts in the jacket were pushing her bust up and over the top of the jacket. And her face was red. "Those idiots must have put too much Retinol in the moisturizer. I'll kill them." Grabbing her makeup case from where she dropped it the night before Katherine goes into the bathroom to do damage control on her flushed features something that hopefully wouldn't clash with this horrible suit. Setting the make up case on the counter, she starts to unwind the towel and screams.
Emily pulls up at Deception on her motorcycle. She walks by the employee of the week parking space and snickers. Glancing down at her watch she breaks into a run. She still had to change into Suzy Corporate before she checked on the presentation. Waving at the security guard she tosses him her helmet as she passes at a run. She halts in her tracks and goes back to the guard. "You do have the parking lot on video don't you?"
"Of Course Emily." The guard nods.
"Great. I'm going to pick up the videos when I go home for lunch if you don't mind. I'm doing a project for school you know one of those documentary things where you speed it up and it looks like ants scurrying around."
"That sounds real interesting." The guard says kindly to the sweet young girl. "I'll have them waiting for you."
"Thanks. You're the greatest!" Emily breaks back into a run using the stairs instead of the elevator. It was faster. As she reaches her office she is greeted by a sleepy and grumpy Liz who is inhaling Emily's secret stash of Hazelnut Psycho Roast coffee that Carly keeps Emily supplied with.
"What am I doing here so early?" Liz grumps.
"You've been hanging around Lucky too much. The Spencer sleep in gene is starting to wear off on you." Emily retorts even as she dashes into the bathroom off her office to change into one of her business suits. Leaving the door ajar she calls out to Liz. "Today is the day."
"The day for what?" Just then the caffeine must have hit. "It's that day?!" Liz darn near spews coffee and coughs to clear her windpipes setting the coffee down on Emily's desk.
"Yep. And I need to make sure that you get the video from the presentation." Emily walks out of the bathroom in her simple navy suit. Today was a day when she planned on blending into the woodwork.
Katherine was the star today.
Katherine stands in the elevator making her way down to the parking garage. She tries to ignore the glances from the fellow passenger in the elevator but finally it gets to her. "What?! What are you starring at?"
"Nothing." The guy holds up his hands in a surrender motion. The elevator reaches the lobby and he steps off turning around he grins at Katherine and gives her a thumbs up. "Nice rack but with that pink turban you look like you should be telling fortunes in a a carnival side show."
"You son of a ..." The closing elevator doors silence Katherine's reply. She reaches to the top of the jacket and tries to adjust it upward to cover more of her bosom. Then pats the turban firmly to make sure it's firmly in place. The next stop is the parking structure. Katherine gathers up her keys and strides off the elevator to her car. For the second time today she screams in horror.