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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Five
Ned
Emily pulls up the Quartermaine front gate and enters her code. As she pulls through the gate she sees that the lights are still on at the Gatehouse. She pulls in and knocks softly on the door. Having walked in on Alexis and Ned on to many times she waits until someone comes to the door. It's Alexis. She is dressed in lounging PJ's and has pushed her reading glasses up on to the top of her head. "Hey Em. Come on in. Ned isn't home yet."
"When do you think he'll be in?" Emily asks.
"He just called and he is on his way. He got hung up at the office." Alexis rolls her eyes.
"Oh that is going to make him happy." Emily takes a seat in the living room. Alexis curls up on the couch and sets her glasses down. She stares at Emily for a long minute. Alexis starts to say something and then bites her tongue. "Yeah, I got in a fight."
Alexis remains calm. "With whom?"
"I'd rather not say. I already got people lined up around the block to kick ass. And I'd rather handle it myself."
"You do know that violence is not the answer. It's uncivilized and the final resort of limited individuals."
"Yeah, that's why I didn't hit her, she just hit me when she lost the battle of wits. Course going in I knew that it was going to be a battle with an unarmed person. I should have expected this." Emily refers to her cheek.
"Hmm school is out. You and Carly actually get along." Alexis eliminates the possiblities then gets a wicked smile. "Katherine Bell. well, well, well. Tell me what you said." Alexis asks greedily.
"I told her she was a golddigging, back stabbing, cradle robbing, social climbing Kenny that should find greener pastures."
"Kenny?"
"Yeah, it's a character on a show that dies in every episode and keeps coming back to life."
Alexis winces having participated in one of the efforts that "killed" Katherine. "Yeah, I can see where she might not have a reply to any of that."
Emily shrugs. "Truth hurts. She just made me so mad when she said that I was so lucky that the Q's took me in."
"OH Bull! Your mother died. I don't remember my mother but I can relate. Everything would have been so different."
Emily nods. "Yeah, so I lashed out and then Katherine slapped me. I think that it freaked her out it wasn't what she was planning on doing. I didn't think much of it but when I was walking back to the stables above the spa Carly saw it like..." Emily snaps her fingers "that. And Bobbie did too, so much for the fine art of makeup! I thought Carly was going to blow a gasket. But Bobbie said it was hardly noticable. That only someone that had been smacked would know."
"Well that gives me away. Covered a few of them myself that Helena gave me growing up." Alexis admits. "Bobbie is right. I don't think that Ned will notice but I think you should tell him before Katherine can come up with a cover story. She is going to try to spin this--it's what she does."
"That's really not what I wanted to talk to him about."
Just then Ned walks through the doorway carrying an overstuffed briefcase. "I can't believe Junyur, he's the damn CEO but he walks out in the middle of a crisis and leaves me holding the bag!"
"That's what I came to talk to Ned about." Emily shakes her head. Alexis rises and grabs the briefcase from Ned and tosses it to the desk. Wrapping herself around him she plants a kiss on him that distracts him from all thoughts of ELQ. When Ned comes up for air he is in a much better mood.
"I love it when you're here when I get home." Ned murmurs and kisses Alexis again. He looks over Alexis shoulder and sees Emily curled up in a chair. "Hey Emily, How are things up at the mansion?"
"I haven't been home yet. Left at dawn and I'm just getting back but I wanted to talk with you first." Emily glances down at her watch. It's after ten and she's exhausted from the long day but this was important-- one of these days Ned was going to make one of those comments in front of Carly and then it would be too late.
Ned settles in on the couch and then loosens and removes his tie. "Shoot." Alexis makes a move to go into the other room to give Ned and Emily some privacy.
"Alexis stay. This concerns you too." Emily insists. Alexis settles in next to Ned. "This crisis, was it really a crisis or was it a grandfather special?"
Ned laughs and nods ruefully. "The old man was in it up to his pointy little ears."
"Okay well then it is not AJ's fault that he wasn't there to deal with Grandfather's manipulations. And you can't blame him because he managed to do something that you never could while you were CEO-- Have that and a life... a family. Grandfather may take it out on you that AJ is home for dinner every night at six but wouldn't you have liked that when you were CEO, to be out of the office and home with your family? Why are you blaming AJ for just taking over the CEO and not touching the "gatekeeping" duties with a ten foot pole?"
"Emily..." Ned protests.
"NO! Ned, you have to figure this out and get over it. I love you, Ned; there have been times when you've been more of a father to me than Alan could be, but you're walking next to a cliff and I don't think that you even see it."
"What do you mean?" Alexis asks seeing that Emily is getting very stressed out by this.
"Did you ever wonder how I knew when to buy Deception stock?"
"Sure, I did." Ned nods. "But I didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth so to speak."
"Thanks." Em grimaces. "I knew because of CARLY. She kept it all quiet, Taggart helped her but she was the one that stumbled on to the meth lab on the property above the spa. That's how I knew to buy the stock before it even hit the papers."
"Well that was lucky for you. I guess."
"There was no luck about it. Carly had been planning to take down the spa all along. She was out there figuring how to tamper with the water supply to the spa. She wanted the spa. Please Ned, THINK-- Carly out tramping in the woods for the hell of it?"
Ned winces. "I don't think so."
"How do you think that Jax knew when to buy the stock?" Emily doesn't give Ned anytime to answer. "Because Jerry and Carly are likethis" Emily crosses her fingers in front of Ned's face. "And they have been long before Jerry and Bobbie got married." Emily sees the questioning look on Ned and Alexis's faces. Damn Carly-- if she hadn't done it before then nobody would be thinking about it now. "And no she isn't and hasn't slept with him. Jerry is her mentor, her advisor, her protector. Jerry is to her, what you are to me." Emily puts her right hand over her heart to emphasize what she just said. "What happened to Katherine Bell was systematically done. AJ started it when he got back the ELQ stock from her-- something that you couldn't do. Carly had access to the information that AJ used and stripped her of the spa. Then we took her out of Deception. Because we were putting the pressure on the company, Carly could get the spa for less than the value, afterall everyone thought that the spa water was tainted with chemicals. But Carly knew better because Jerry had people up there before Katherine even knew about the meth lab doing analysis on the water and soil. We were part of Carly's planned assault on Katherine so that she could get the spa AND not have her name attached to any of it."
"Wow." Alexis leans back into the couch. "She's good, that's worthy of Stefan."
"Did you ever wonder who Taggart's deepthroat was in taking down Ferncliffe and Dr Evans?"
"Carly." Ned says grimly. "The press thought as much but they could never prove it. After the trial it seemed like Lorraine Miller was the one."
"Carly was the one that convinced Lorraine to get a job at Ferncliffe. Do you really think that she really lost her mind when she got sent to Ferncliffe?"
"Luke said that she was faking." Alexis remembers.
"Yeah, and the only two that knew at the time where Jason and I guess, Luke. Luke didn't know for sure. There was no way that Carly was going to go to prison for years. Ferncliffe was a short cut back to her family. Instead of doing years for shooting Dr Jones, she spent six months in hell. Do I really need to go on? Ned, AJ CAN'T do the gatekeeping duties for the Quartermaines because he has CARLY. All he can do IS the CEO duties. AJ has his hands full trying to keep Carly feeling safe, happy and out of trouble. Gatekeeping was something that you added to the CEO position. But it's something that AJ doesn't have the time or the inclination to take on. IF you have a complaint about his work that is one thing, but if he's not cleaning up grandfather's messes to your satisfaction that's grandfather's problem not AJ's. You HAVE to put it on grandfather and not take it out on AJ."
Ned is silent. But Alexis is curious. "Why?"
"Because everytime you call AJ junyor or slam him because you're mad at Grandfather, you start infringing on Carly's safety and happiness. When you do that you threaten her family and you get to be in the same category as AJ was , dumped in an alley and soaked with booze so that everyone would think he was drinking; Tony, shot in a court room; Dr Evans, playing pass the soap with a guy named Sweetums in a medium security correction facility; or Katherine who doesn't have ELQ, the spa, Deception or her young lover now. Grandfather has already figured this out, why haven't you? Grandfather doesn't mess with AJ anymore because he knows he has no control over what Carly would do. Grandfather learned his lesson when he had to suck up to Carly to get out of the burglary charges. And he doesn't mess with AJ anymore after Jakarta because he know if anything happens to AJ then Carly gets to vote Michael, and thanks to AJ's will, AJ's stock in ELQ. The ONLY thing that is holding Carly back from going after you IS AJ. AJ has told her to lay off you. Going after you is LOGICAL to Carly if she destroys you then she eliminates a threat to her family."
"She's already started, hasn't she?" Alexis asks dreading the answer.
"That's what I'm afraid of. You won't see it coming, Ned. Out of nowhere you are going to get hit by a steamroller. I know that she is up to something. What did Carly tell me..." Emily bites her lip and tries to remember. "That she had something in the works, something completely independant that could be turned in a heartbeat to be used against you. You have got to stop bashing AJ. He might be used to it but Carly is getting fed up. You're threatening her family. If she snaps, all AJ will be able to do is clean up the mess afterward."
"There is no way that she can sneak up on me." Ned reassures Emily.
"Oh Right." Emily rolls her eyes. "Ned, she is getting better and better at it. Ferncliffe taught her patience. The only reason that the press suspected her on Ferncliffe was because she couldn't resist seeing Evans arrested. You didn't know about Katherine, I don't think that you knew that she had teamed up with Jerry. For people she loves, Carly is capable of ANYTHING and you aren't one of them. Jerry taught her to hide her assets so that Grandfather can't use them against her or AJ. Whatever she has on you is just as buried." Emily pleads. "I'm not asking you to do anything but what is right-- Back off AJ. He isn't running ELQ the way that you would but he's doing okay. If you've got a problem with Grandfather take it up with him-- just leave AJ alone ESPECIALLY in front of Carly." Emily rises and kisses Ned on the cheek giving him a big hug and then walks up to the mansion. She decides to leave the bike where it is so that she can hopefully enter the mansion by stealth and not have to deal with any questions.
Alexis cuddles up next to Ned. "It took a lot for her to come here."
"Why do you say that?"
"Emily and Carly are friends. Emily's worked hard to not be perceived as a threat to Carly. And it seems from the outside looking in that Carly has worked just as hard to include Emily in her family. I'm so sorry, Ned."
"For what?" Ned hugs Alexis close to him.
Alexis pulls back so that she can look Ned in the eye. "I should have done for you what Carly did for AJ. I guess I had my own blinders on. Gatekeeping is a way of life for me and I didn't see that you didn't have to be one-- at least not for the WHOLE family. AJ's limited his gatekeeping to just his own little family not the whole Quartermaine clan."
"I don't think I would change anything." Ned sighs. "So it looks like Carly has spoiled all my fun, eh?"
"Guess we're going to have to come up with something to occupy your free time." Alexis suggests with a wicked smile and a quirked brow.