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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Seventy Seven
Blind to Ambition
Sunday night at Wyndemere Lite. Nikolas wanders down to the basement to let Maddy know he is leaving for the evening and that the graveyard crew has been cancelled for the evening so she will be alone at the house. Nik knocks on the door and then enters at Maddy's come in. Looking around the room it is amazing what she has done with in the day that she has been there. There is a futon couch with tons of pillows. The windowless walls have posters on them: Albert Einstein, Donald Trump, Dorothy Dandridge, Rosa Parks, Denzel Washington as Malcolm X.
The wall that would be to the outside of the house has an oversized cityscape poster framed like a window complete with curtains. By the futon is a milkcrate covered with a coordinating scarf. A small lamp and a couple of remotes rest there. The built in shelves of the storeroom act as an entertainment center/wall unit. In the unit is a small tv/vcr combo, a Bose stereo, a small collection of books, CDs, and framed photos. With the exception of the futon, and maybe even with the futon, Nikolas realizes that everything in the room can fit in the back of Maddy's van and can be packed up by one person. "You travel lightly and it appears expertly."
"I've had a little practice." Maddy understates. She shrugs. "This..." She looks around the room. "...is not a priority and also temporary."
"I wanted to let you know I was leaving for the evening and there will be no crew on tonight. Lucky and Elizabeth have keys to the main house but you should be undisturbed."
"I was undisturbed last night." Maddy reminds him. She adjusts a pillow behind her back curled up in the corner of the couch. She pats the futon next to her. "What did you get done today? By the time I got back from brunch all the crews were gone."
"The crews accomplished quite alot. And I formallized a place for my horse to be boarded once I move in here."
"You sure don't travel light." Maddy laughs. "A horse?"
"Things happened rather quickly." Nik admits.
"Yeah, you've only know Emily for what... four years-- or is it five?"
"You really are a bitch." Nik says flatly.
"Was there ever any question?" Maddy widens her eyes dramatically unoffended by Nik's comment. Anyone who knew her long knew it to be true. "Sorry, I know when you met Em she was a child and you were the big bad. You had to get all your wild oats out of the way. And then one day poof she's all grown up and you're wishing you'd paid more attention. Cause now someone is cutting in on your line, right?" Maddy muses aloud offering Nikolas some microwave popcorn absently. "So basically Em is where you were when you first met. Ready to sow a few wild oats of her own."
"And you think I should let her? Back off?" Nikolas protests.
"Oh hell no. Johnny Porter is perfect first husband material. Protective, understanding, used to strong women, he can cook and I bet he is fabulous in bed. And the problem with perfect first husbands, there is seldom a second."
"You think they are that serious? Emily loves me."
"Two separate issues there, Niknik. Are they serious?" Maddy waves a hand around to indicate the house. "Who cares if they are serious... you are. You've got the settling down bug going bad. So you've got a couple of worries there a) that Em is serious about the gangster goumet or b) That's she not wanting to be serious about anyone-- wild oats remember? Does she love you?" Maddy shrugs. "Emily loves chocolate. She loves her dogs; She loves her family; she loves Michael; She loves Boyzone. Yeah, I bet she loves you too. Love is just another four letter word."
"That's you talking, Maddy, not Emily." Nikolas disagrees.
"Yeah, you're right. But I get so sick of it. Love, Love, Love, it's used to excuse the greatest of stupidities. Look, we should change the subject. Me and Love aren't on speaking terms."
"Yes," Nikolas says slowly, knowing there is a history there. Probably as checkered as his own where relationships are concerned. "So tell me what you accomplished today?"
"Hooked a new client-- so to speak. Edward Quartermaine and I had some business to discuss. Did a little networking and got a great brunch out of the deal. Mr Q is just the type of guy who needs someone like me."
"Someone like you." Nik repeats carefully. He feels like he's come into the conversation without a necessary manual.
"He is so focused." Maddy leans in enthusiastically. "But focused to the point of tunnel vision. He needs a detail person to catch the collaterial issues. He'd never forget Ms. Lila's birthday or anniversary but the grand kids? Oh yeah, you bet. Or he'd give them some stock or something when what they want is a radio control car, or a real car or something. Ms Lila probably handles most of his details."
"Well if you have any influence at all. Emily would like a birthday without drama and that is coming up in February."
Maddy grabs her allplanner and makes a note of it getting the exact date from Nikolas to do a reminder to Edward at the time. Nikolas sees how fat the planner is. There is way more than 365 pages. "Why don't you have that on computer?"
"You ever lost your bookmarks?" Maddy holds up the planner. "This thing is gold and would be damn hard to reconstruct. A computer is something to steal but a book is something you leave behind unless you're specifically trying to steal the business. I have all my clients and suppliers on disc so I can review before appointments but nothing stays on my harddrive for long."
"May I?" Nikolas holds out a hand and Maddy reluctantly passes over the notebook. Nik examines it. "It's alot like my project book for the house. So would my uncle be interested in your services?"
"Oh heck no." Maddy laughs and shakes her head.
"That was fast."
"Your Uncle is a detail man, every move planned with care after a lot of thought and all the possibilities contemplated. It's why he is so damn slow. He might need me but he'd never admit it because he'd never be willing to give up the details."
Nik thinks that his uncle has been insulted. "My uncle has huge responsibilities. The Cassadine estate and holdings are flung all over the world. It's a full time job!"
"Never said it wasn't. Just said your uncle probably micromanages. It's understandable, right? Since it's all for you. He might be a total cowboy when it comes to his own stuff." But Maddy doubts it. "You can see how it should work just by looking at some of the dynamic duos in this town-- Carly and AJ Quartermaine. Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan. Ideas balanced with detail and followthrough. A opportunity seen and immediately seized. What one might miss the other picks up." Maddy's enthusiasm is obvious and contagious.
"Lucky and Elizabeth." Nikolas has observed it himself. "But what you're talking about is very trusting. Trust is a big leap."
"The biggest. Why do you think I'm still flying solo? Well that's not quite true. I trust my employees or they wouldn't be mine. The same with my suppliers. I trust my partners but my deals are done with a handshake and are short term with an option to renew. To stay independant, I know that I'm the cog in a lot of different people's wheels." Maddy taps the planner. "And the only trust involved is that they will pay me on time. Your total trust in Stefan's ability to manage the estate frees you up to do things like this." Maddy indicates the house. "Or the hospital work you do."
"Okay Ms Swami, tell my why Emily and John Cook would work. Why he would be so perfect." Nikolas decides to pick Maddy's brain to see if he can identify a weakness he can exploit.
Maddy rises from the futon couch and walking over to the entertainment wall drops in a CD something light and easy basically just giving herself time to think. She leans up against the wall and stares at Nik but he can tell she is not actually seeing him. Finally she starts talking. "Em and Johnny are both nurturers; its the core of their character. Both are extremely protective of family and friends-- to the point of overprotective and protective selflessly. They'll screw themselves over before they'd screw over a friend or family. Both have dreams and ambitions but Johnny has realized his-- the restaurant. That grounds him. He doesn't want a chain of restaurants; that would be a headache. If Johnny were to branch out it would be to writing a cookbook or having a cooking show on the Food Channel but it would all come back to the one restaurant, the one kitchen. The setting might change, he might expand, change sites or whatever, but it will always be one kitchen."
"And Emily?"
"Emily is more deceptive." Maddy holds a hand up as Nikolas is about to protest. "I'm not dissing her. You look at Em and you see the sweet, the nurturer, the protective nature, the team building-- the whole female thing. But what are her ambitions? What are her dreams? You have no idea because all you see is what she's shown you. You've been isolated all your life, or so I've been told. Now that you're actually looking she must just seem perfect-- the perfect caregiver, she'd never screw you over, she draws people to her which means you don't have to work so hard to build those interpersonal ties which make the world go round. Right now Emily is like a kite being blown by the wind-- student, modeling, Deception. But when she figures it out, watch out!" Maddy snaps her fingers coming to a realization. "Emily wants to be CEO of ELQ and not because she should like AJ, but because it is her."
"You're high." Nik shakes his head using what little slang he remembered. "That's you again, Maddy, not Emily."
Maddy laughs in his face. "And you are oblivious! Christ, Candy! LOOK! She's seventeen years old, and she engineered the takeover of Deception. She engineered the takedown of the skank you were doing. And protected you in the process! She has no power in her life, no control over her own money other than what her trustee gives her and what is she doing? She is hooking up with me! Handshake deal, no paperwork, no parents, she's getting half of the profits from two of my kiosks under the table. I don't even want to know what she is doing with that money. She's got a mind like a steel trap and reads the business section of the paper before she reads the freaking comics! Who are her influences?" Maddy starts counting them off on her fingers. "Edward, Ned, Carly, the Jacks brothers, AJ and the really scary one, Jason. What do you think?!"
"I think you're exaggerating." Nik shakes his head but the seed has been planted.
"Your brother came into some bucks, serious money. Who did he go to, to find out what the stocks were worth?"
"Carly."
"And?" Maddy prompts already knowing the answer.
Nik closes his eyes. "Em, she was calculating the values as fast as the swiss bankers."
"And the kidnapping, that was because Emily blackballed that model right?"
"No. Orchid destroyed her own career with drugs. Em had nothing to do with it."
"Yeah, but sweet, nuturing, protective team-building Emily would have given Orchid a helping hand, right? Given her a job. Tried to stop her from self destructing. Didn't happen, did it? Em protected her company first. And probably was very blunt in her reasoning. She did blackball Orchid from Deception, with good reason, but she did it. Emily was kidnapped because Orchid saw what everyone else sees, expects to see. She expected Emily to bail her out, to rescue her and Em didn't. And that pissed her off. That kidnapping wasn't just about money; it was about revenge."
Nikolas has already confirmed as much in his brief communication with the kidnappers. Orchid hadn't put it the same way but the same feeling had come through. But his contact with the kidnappers wasn't something to be discussed especially with an information broker like Maddy. "Go on."
"I bet you twenty years from now there are two companies-- ELQ and EBQ. NO, make that ten years from now. She's already got Deception. And there's a hundred dollars around here somewhere that says she'll get a modeling agency for her next birthday. Some Gramps just give Barbie Dolls, right? And if she's running the company then she can't be modeling, can she? That's right up Mr Q's alley. Little Emmie likes business so let her have the girlie companies like hair and makeup. Once she hits eighteen her income is her own. Don't know if she'll be able to touch her trust fund. Let's say she can't, maybe she'll keep modeling that way she's got the income and it torques Mr Q to the point where he either loosens the trust, pays her not to model or both."
"Alexis says Emily's trust is set up like the Cassadine estate. Many different things but rather than wholes, she has pieces."
"Yeah." Maddy nods. "That would work. She'd be going along learning the ropes with Deception, maybe the agency, just content to monitor the others and then something would happen, someone would tick her off. Remember her influences: Edward, the Jacks boys and Carly. And before the company knew what hit it she'd go from minority shareholder to majority and start cleaning house. Build a team she trusted there and then back off again-- only now she knows she can do it. And who is going to mess with her? The puny company? They might and then who is standing behind her? AJ with ELQ and Jax with J&J. Ready to run to little Emmie's rescue, 'cause that is the way all of them think of her. But I'm getting off topic. Where would Johnny be in all this you ask?"
"Where?"
"He'd be her spotter, her sounding board. She'd come home from a long day at Deception. She'll come over to the restaurant probably a family table back in the kitchen. He'll give her some dish he's been experimenting with for a special... 'cause Porter's getting famous for their specials even now right? About the time things started slowing down he'd have a seat at the table and ask-- How was your day? And she'll tell him about some problem or another and then he'd say. What are you going to do about it, Honey? In a nutshell that's the difference between you two."
"Whoa, whoa! No way!" Nik protests. You aren't going to make it that easy."
"It is that easy." Maddy says confidentially. "Who are Johnny's influences that we know of? His mother and probably Carly Quartermaine, Right? I mean Johnny used to work for Jason and if I remember my news clippings right didn't Carly...."
Nik is already nodding. "They're both maniacs."
"Okay we'll say they're maniacs. Is there anything Emily could do that would shock Johnny after those two? 'Bout the only thing, Johnny would jump in on would be a physical confrontation or threat of violence."
"Having looked down the barrel of his handgun, I must respectfully disagree." Nik says wryly.
"Really?! And which part of your anatomy did he threaten first?" Maddy teases. "Would it be a part I would miss, 'Candy?"
"Knock it off." Nik regrets saying anything.
Maddy kicks back on the futon couch; She rests her head tiredly against the wall. "One more character tear down and then you're out of here. Five am comes too darn early and then some sadist scheduled calculus for first period." Mr Q's offer is looking better all the time. "You."
"Me?"
"Yeah. You. You've listened to my opinions of my partners. It's only fair I tell you what I think of you to your face."
"Don't hold anything back." Nik tells her wryly.
"I never do." Maddy retorts. "Know that a lot of my information comes from the press and some from direct observation so pieces of it are probably flawed. That disclaimer out of the way... You have three apparant female influences: your grandmother, your mother and probably the skank. What did you learn from your grandmother? To distrust women and to control them before they control you. What did you learn from your mother? To distrust women and to protect them by wrapping them up in a neat little box where they couldn't possibly be harmed or leave you. And what did you learn from the skank? To distrust women and to not be lead around by your johnson. Or at least I hope you learned that one."
Nik is stunned silent by the cold recitation. And Maddy continues. It really has been a long day and she's tired. The tired matter of fact tone of her voice seems to just hammer the point home. Her eyes close. "Your attentions are a coccoon of affection wrapping the person in warmth and safety. Everything will always be perfect-- the perfect house, the perfect date, the perfect clothes, the perfect compliment because you know what is best. If she's chilled you'll warm her. If she has a problem you'll solve it. If someone distresses her you'll remove them." Maddy opens her eyes and looks directly at Nikolas. He's good but she'd been ready and her suspicions are confirmed. Nikolas had removed Orchid and the photographer. She could read it in his face before he erased his expression.
"You are sweet, spoiled, selfish and self-centered. Anything is within your grasp because it always has been. One day you'll wield incredible power and you've been in training for it all of your life. You are descedent of a centuries old aristocracy who accumulated it's wealth from the broken backs of people like me. Your family's excesses have been well documented and then along comes you and Stefan. Your strongest influence. But haven't you seen it? When he wants something bad enough... doesn't he reach out and take it?" Maddy tucks her legs under her rising to her knees balancing her arm along the back of the couch. "Or is he like the spider spinning an intricate web entangling the object of his desire, camoflauging his intent until the trap is sprung? The way he plays chess-- I'd say the latter. Every move designed to methodically box me in. And I could tell, he doesn't play to tie... but to win."
"From a game of chess? You assassinate my character, my uncle's based on a game of chess?" Nikolas growls.
"Oh no, I admire your uncle, the same way I admire MrQ. They both have focus. But I'm the bitch remember? You've had years of training to be the Cassadine heir. While you were learning about poisons and who are the ones who will go for your back, I was learning the same lessons in a far different school. How to read faces, how to read body language, how to discern motivations because my existence depended on it. To find the thing that the person wants and to either give it to them, or withhold it to get what I want. What I need."
"You are my uncle." Nikolas realizes metaphorically speaking.
"Thank you." Maddy takes it as a compliment whether it was meant or not. "When I met him..." Maddy grins. "He made the mistake of seeing what he expected to see and not what was actually there. It threw him and that was fun to watch. He recovered, but I bet he still doesn't know how I fit. I'm not the maid so I must be sleeping with you, right?" Maddy doesn't give Nik time to answer. "How much do you want to bet that he has a dossier or has at least ordered one on me? One information junkie to another?"
"No bet." Nikolas knows enough to know that there would be a dossier on Stefan's desk.
"So will you miss me when I'm removed?" Maddy asks. "Because I do challenge that coccoon he has spun around you. And that can be distressing."
"I'll visit as often as I can." Nik jokes. "So am I suppose to trust you, Maddy, my friend? You say it's not in my nature."
"It's not. And I don't care if you trust me or not. Believe me or not. This conversation wasn't about you and me. It was about you and Emily. When your uncle saw me, he saw what he expected to see. And you do the same with Emily. Open your eyes, Niknik. See for yourself and then decide if you believe me." Maddy rises from the couch and walks over to the door. She stands there with her hand on the knob until Nikolas walks out of the room. He turns around to make a last comment but the door is already closed and he hears the lock click shut.