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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Nine
A little Night Music.
Luke's the joint is jumping. Most of the tables are filled or filling rapidly as AJ strolls in with Carly and Emily. Carly spies a table and makes her way to it. Carly can tell by the way the staff is moving that they are totally swamped. "AJ, I think that if we're going to get any drinks you're going to have to get them from the bar."
"Yeah, I was figuring as much." AJ leaves the table and waits patiently at the end of the bar to get Claude's attention. Claude sees him and nods glancing over the club he sees that Carly and Emily are with AJ. He adds their "usuals" to the list of drinks that he is making and catches a waitress that happens to be passing on her way to the backroom.
"Let Luke know his niece is here." Claude directs.
The music sets Emily's toes to tapping. Carly is rocking in her seat as well. She glances over at AJ who is still standing at the end of the bar. "Oh screw it. You want to dance?"
"NOW?" Emily's eyes go wide.
"This is too good to waste waiting around for a guy to ask ya to dance . Come on!" Carly pulls Emily from her chair. They make their way to the middle of the dance floor. Emily feels conspicuous for a minute and then starts getting into it; Carly has closed her eyes and moves to the music. She didn't care where they were... the could have been in her living room at home or on the top of Mt Everest as long as the beat was strong and you could dance to it. Emily closes her eyes too for a minute and just listens to the music-- the beat takes over from there. She doesn't understand a word of the song. She'd taken some French; could swear in Italian from her trips to Italy with Monica but was clueless where spanish was concerned.
"What is this?" Emily asks Carly over the music.
"Who knows? Who cares?" Carly's shrug turns into a shoulder roll that shimmies down her spine and into her hips. "But I bet that Sonny picked it out!" Carly snaps her fingers and recalls exactly what it is. "Sergio Mendes -- Magalenha" Carly reaches out and takes both of Emily's hands--dancing palm to palm. They start doing a mirror of each other's moves. Hair toss, shouder roll, torso shake, hips start moving in a subtle figure eight hitting every beat. Claude pauses in mid pour his attention totally focused on the floor. Carly and Emily have taken over the middle of the dance floor and are wiping it up. Emily's taller and more lithesome, her movements fluid. Carly is lusher, more earthy, with an overt sexual quality to her. Together they encompassed the lust levels of all the men in the room. And in combination they are almost irresistable.
AJ looks around the room and grins knowing that he has become the envy of all the guys there. He just shakes his head and laughs. Luke comes out from the back room and takes in the commotion on the dance floor. Damn. Guess the Spencer dance gene was just that-- genetic. Luke makes his way to the center of the floor. Carly sees him heading their direction and invites him to join them. Her uncle might be a pain in the ass but he knows how to move. Together the trio finishes out the number and when the music fades Luke has spun both of the ladies out and wound them back into him. There is a smattering of applause even a few whistles and hoots. Emily fans herself and laughs. It's time to have some FUN! Luke escorts them back to their table. Emily has barely sat down when she is invited to dance. She takes the man's hand and goes out on the dance floor not planning on sitting down again until the music stopped or she passed out from heat exhaustion which ever came first.
Carly kisses AJ on the cheek and grabs her drink half draining it. "Oh that was great!"
"Come on, sweet Caroline-- one more dance with your old uncle before he has to go back and tear out his hair over the books." Luke quirks a brow. Carly looks over at AJ who nods.
"Well you can't afford to lose anymore hair." Carly agrees with a mischievious glint. "Let me know if you start having chest pains."
"Just try to keep up, niece." Luke rolls his eyes. They take the floor by storm playing their own subtle game of anything you can do I can do better. While they are trying to one up each other, Bobbie and Jerry arrive. Jerry spots AJ immediately and remembers he had to tell AJ about Carly's plan for Ned. They make their way over to the table. Bobbie is distracted by someone that she knows from the hospital. Jerry pulls out a chair next to AJ and leans in consipiratorily.
"Wanna know what your wife is up too?"
"Oh God. Do I want to?" AJ winces.
"Just a quick heads up, mate. She's still in the planning stages and I don't know what the exact game plan is but I do know the target."
"Let me guess, she hasn't finished with Katherine Bell."
"Oh her too, but this one is aimed straight at Ned."
"Hell." AJ says quietly. "What did he do now?"
"I've no idea. We ran into Ashton and Miss Emily at the grill while Carly and I were having a quick meeting. I'm getting the feeling that Ashton hasn't done anything more than normal lately. Carly just wants to be ready when she thinks he's stepped over the line. So I know what is going to be used and who the target is I just don't know how and when. Ned was baiting her some-- asking what you'd think of her and him sitting at a table together."
"What did Carly say?" AJ asks dreading the answer.
"That you'd be getting the bail money together."
AJ winces. "True. I'll try to talk to Ned but he doesn't seem to take the situation seriously. I don't know why he doesn't-- considering that Alexis was right there in the courtroom when Carly shot Tony. She's got this thing against guys that smirk at her."
"And Ashton is a world class smirker." Jerry agrees. Bobbie makes her way back to the table and Jerry turns the conversation to a more general direction. Luke escorts Carly back to the table. Emily stays out on the dance floor for the next song. The door opens to the club and Nikolas steps in. He walks up to the bar and turns around to look for Emily. He spots her on the dance floor and decides to bide his time. When the song ends Emily thanks her partner and walks off the floor sitting down long enough to take a sip of her drink before Nikolas walks up behind her.
"Mind if I join you?" he asks.
"Why Nikolas-- what a surprise!" Emily says.
"Ain't it though." Carly shakes her head at Emily and grins. "Nikolas Cassadine, I've heard so much about you." Carly drawls.
"And I you, Mrs Quartermaine."
"Oh call me Carly. Why-- we're practically family. We were at one point although Bobbie didn't know it; your father did, but not Bobbie, and he was your uncle back then, wasn't he?"
AJ winces. "Wow will you listen to this song? C'mon Carly-- let's dance." AJ pulls Carly away from the table and onto the dance floor where a slow song is playing. He wraps Carly close to him.
Carly plays with the hair at the nape of AJ's neck and whispers in his ear. "You're just trying to ruin all my fun, aren't you? Don't think I don't know what you and Jerry were yacking about so seriously."
"We agreed you'd leave Ned alone." AJ reminds Carly, admitting tacitly Jerry had infact filled him in.
"For now. We agreed I'd leave him alone FOR NOW. But when you finally give me the okay to take him out, I'm not going to be caught flatfooted."
Back at the table Nikolas asks Emily to dance. She agrees. Bobbie looks at Jerry with relief on her face. "That was a close one."
"Too damn close. What's Carly got against young Cassadine?"
"Well there's his last name. That's kind of ingrained with being a Spencer. Then there's him being so tight with Robin Scorpio. Robin topped Carly's least favored list even before she tried to wreck Carly's life by telling AJ about Michael or her testifying for Tony in the custody case about Lucas. And the clincher is probably all the threats that Stefan made against Jason." Bobbie ticks off the reasons at least the ones that she can think of. "Then there is the most persistent reason-- she's perverse and wants to stir up trouble. She's not above playing on my love for Nikolas to get me to do what she wants."
"Like going after Katherine Bell."
"Exactly." Bobbie admits ruefully abet cheerfully. "But she didn't have to push too hard regarding Kat. C'mon, lets dance. Lucas is on a sleepover who knows when we'll get another chance to go out like this." Jerry laughs and cuddles with Bobbie all the way to the dance floor. As it never fails to do at least once in the evening-- they'd taken two steps onto the dance floor and the music stopped. Bobbie laughs and rolls her eyes. AJ and Carly go back to the table. Bobbie and Jerry, Nik and Emily wait for the next song to starts.
"We should get back to the house." AJ says regretfully.
"I know. Rita has all the numbers and she is probably still up watching some midnight horror flick but..." Carly agrees being sensible for once.
"I get the feeling that we aren't going to be able to pry Emily away from Nikolas." AJ looks out on the dance floor.
"Oh I can fix that." Carly smiles. Emily and Nik make their way back to the table. "Em, we're cutting out now. Are you ready to go?"
Emily looks at Nikolas. Nikolas replies. "I'll see that she gets home."
"Oh okay. Tell you what. I'll call you in about an hour on your personal line at home. If you aren't home then the phone will ring, and ring, and ring some more until someone picks it up. Talk to you later." Carly waves one hand and walks out with AJ.
"Would she do that?" Nik asks.
"Of course. It's chaperoning at a distance. Carly and Grandmother are aces at it. Grandfather on the other hand is more the ... hands on approach. His most recent threat is a shotgun loaded with rocksalt."
"You have got to be kidding. That sounds like something right out of the play." Nikolas laughs.
"Well Reggie fixed it. There isn't a firing mechanism in the shotgun. But it makes Grandfather feel better." Emily admits. "So if he ever pulls the shotgun on you-- appear threatened okay?"
"Right. Well it looks like we have an hour. Want to take a drive?"
"Yeah, I'd like that." Nikolas offers Emily his hand and escorts her out the to the Jag. They drive in silence for a little while stopping down at the docks. Nikolas had decided the a public location even on a secluded pier across from Wyndemere was the best bet considering the clock that Emily was under.
"Are you cold?" Nikolas asks wrapping an arm around Emily's shoulders.
"Not now. I had fun tonight. I was so surprised when you showed up at the theater."
"We'd made plans for this evening, I understand better than most familial obligations but I'd hoped to combine the two."
"Grandmother likes you."
"Your grandfather doesn't. And no disrespect to your grandmother but she also likes Sonny Corinthos!"
"Guess she's just a sucker for good manners." Emily grins.
"It seems as if your grandparents are the family that you spend the most time with." Nik opens a can of worms with a deft touch.
"Alan and Monica are very busy with their careers and fighting over my brothers. Which is funny since AJ and Jason don't even fight that much anymore. I suppose it's the bonus and the bane of a having a multigenerational household that the grandparents are always there. Holding me to a standard that is about 50 year out of date but they're there and have been much more active in minding my business since I had the trouble with Matt and then what Tom did with the internet photos. Cook was the biggest buttinski but it was hard to fight with her. You know Johnny's mom." Emily winces bringing Johnny into this perfect moment.
"The psycho with a butcher knife?"
"Only if you snuck up on her!" Emily defends. "And I'm sure that Mrs Landsbury has her quirks too!"