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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Ninety
Out of Sorts
Porter's Restaurant. Rita yawns not bothering to cover her mouth. The Sunday brunch crowd wasn't due for hours yet but Johnny had picked her up from home. He was going to work on getting some baking done and she was in charge of getting the dining room ready for the waitresses. Cookie wasn't even here yet. She said something about making Daddy breakfast in bed spoiling him a little bit before his next big case came up and he had to practically live at the office. Rita starts when she hears the tap of a ring on glass and looks over at the front door. "We're clos..." Then she thinks about it for a second. She wants to talk to this guy anyway. Going over to the door she unlocks it and opens the door. Pete Robideaux enters. As soon as he enters, Rita locks the door after him. "Hello Mr. Robideaux."
"I know you aren't open yet but nothing seems to be." Pete says ruefully. "I took a chance when I walked by."
"Would you like some coffee?"
"I would kill for coffee."
"I'll remember that." Rita leads him over to one of the smaller tables that she had already prepped. "Here. I'll go get you some coffee and let my brother know you are here. Did you want anything particular for breakfast?"
"I wouldn't presume. What ever you or your brother decide will be fine." Pete slides into the seat. Rita walks back to the prep area where Johnny had started coffee first thing and grabs the pot of coffee and the restaurant copy of the Sunday Herald. Going over to the table, she sets the paper across from Mr. Robideaux and fills his coffee cup. Pete takes a grateful sip and then exhales. That was just the thing. He looks up to where Rita is still standing looking at him with a serious expression. "Is everything okay, child?"
"I owe you an apology."
"For what?" Pete questions.
"Johnny scolded me last night. I know now you are a friend of Maddy's but I didn't when I told you she was in town. You could have been a total creep for all I knew even if Mr. Corinthos says you aren't a drug dealer. I want you to know I won't talk about Maddy or her business to any other strangers and that if anyone asks about her I'm going straight to my brother."
"You have a lot of confidence in your brother."
Rita frowns. "Well of course. Johnny can do anything. He found me when I got kidnapped. Which was a good thing cause if Cookie had found the kidnappers first or anyone that hurts her family she would have sliced them from end to end with her boning knife and then my dad would have buried the disemboweled carcasses under the jail. I'll let Johnny know you're here."
Pete is still staring in the direction where Rita had gone when Johnny comes out of the kitchen. Johnny groans when he sees Robideau's expression. "What did she do now?"
"Told me she would be more careful in the future with Madeleine's business. Do you have time?" Pete waves to the chair across from him. Johnny glances at his watch. He had ten before the pastries had to come out of the oven. He pours a cup of coffee and sits down. "Who kidnapped your sister and why?"
"That would take longer than I have before I have to get back to work." Johnny sighs. "Long story short, a couple of druggies snatched a friend of Rita's and Rita happened to be there at the time. I got lucky and found them but it took a few days."
"And this is why your sister threatens in one breath someone named Cookie slicing people from end to end and her father burying them under the jail and yet despises anything to do with drugs?"
Johnny closes his eyes. "Oh Gawd. She is spending way too much time with Ma." He rubs his hand against the closed lids. "What else?"
"It is not my place." Pete tries to retreat not wanting to get the little one in more trouble.
"You're here and I need to know what I'm up against."
"Sonny, your former boss true?" Pete continues at Johnny's nod. "He says that he could have told Rita I was a hired killer and it would not phase her but if she thought I pushed drugs that she would poison the soup."
Johnny sighs. "Rita thinks some people need killing-- mostly people who push drugs. She sees everything and has a bad habit of hearing everything too."
"My Madeleine is the same." Pete nods in understanding. "It is why she is in Port Charles. She saw too much, heard too much in N'Orleans. And there were some that would have tried to take advantage. Any gray hair I have I've gotten since my Mere introduced me to Madeleine."
"My introduction to Rita was her popping up in the middle of an illegal search of the boss' coffee warehouse telling the Lieutenant in charge that he couldn't search without a warrant or probable cause. The boss thought it was funny then but the cop just about had a coronary having the law shoved down his throat by an eleven year old pixie."
"We agree now. You keep an eye on Maddy while she is here in Port Charles. And if your Rita is ever down in my territory I'll make sure she is kept safe." Pete extends his hand over the table.
Johnny takes it shaking it firmly sealing the deal. Rita comes out of the kitchen bearing a short stack of wheat toast and a selection of jams. "Oh scary. You two have looks on your face like what Mr. Jerry and AJ get when they're talking about Carly. This is one of the things I don't need to know right?" Rita sets the plate and condiments in front of Pete. "This one is blackberry jam from this year's berries, you should try it. Cookie made it, it's really good. Not too sweet. She wouldn't let me see how she did it though. She said I ate too many of the berries." Rita turns to Johnny. "I took your stuff out of the oven and put the others in. It's cooling on the racks. Did either of you want more coffee? Okay, well then I'll get back to work." Rita heads back into the kitchen.
"I think that was a hint." Johnny says laughing. "I'll send Rita out with the rest of your breakfast."
Emily leans up against the door jam of Jason's penthouse and raps on the door with her cane. Two weeks six days and she's out of this torture device. No more cast, no more cane, no more taking showers with hefty bags taped around her leg.
"Hey Em." Jason opens the door and seeing who it is gives her a hug. The hug ends up being a kid transfer.
"Emmie!" Michael wraps his hands around her neck and gives her a sloppy kiss on the cheek.
"Hey Mr. Man. You have fun with Daddy?" Michael nods and automatically hands Emily a shoe. "Where is your other church shoe? I'll help you put them both on." Em sets Michael down.
"You need some coffee?" Jason offers walking into the kitchen already knowing the answer.
"Oh yeah, I was home by midnight like Grandfather wanted but we all stayed up yakking for a while." Em raises her voice to be heard.
"Smooth move leaving AJ with the tab."
"It was Carly's idea. She was just full of them last night." Em's voice returns to normal as Jason returns with a mug of coffee setting it at the dining room table next to where Em has taken a seat.
"Like having Taggart showing up at a poker game?" Jason shakes his head.
"Well he's kind of been on her list since he detained Bobbie when she and Jerry were coming back from their honeymoon. So are we going to Porter's after church?"
"Sounds good."
"Oh Jase, you are going to love this one. Guess what voodoo water man used as an excuse for me having to be back to the house early last night?"
"Church?" Jason snickers. "Guess he'd rather have you hanging with the papists than the eurotrash or hoodlums." Jason's imitation of Edward is right on.
"Yeah, he's kind of bummed about today though. He knows I go out to brunch with you and Michael on Sundays and Maddy cancelled on him." Emily doesn't look up from tying Michael's shoe laces. "She wants to talk to her friend from New Orleans and find out why he showed up in Port Charles. I hope there isn't a problem."
"Me too." Jason says quietly.
Maddy comes in to Wyndemere lite from checking on the kiosks and stopping at the twenty-four hour grocery. "Sleep in, Ha! Thank goodness Larry finished the kitchen. Take deep breaths. He isn't expecting this. It's a surprise."
"Expecting what? Surprise for whom?" Nik says from behind her.
Maddy comes off the floor startled by the voice. "Wear a damn bell!"
"Oh my someone rolled out on the wrong side of the futon this morning. What are you doing?"
"It's a kitchen. I'm cooking. I do have kitchen privileges right?" Maddy snarls. "Don't touch anything." Maddy races down to her room in the basement. Nik shakes his head and takes the time while she is gone to set a pot of coffee to drip. When Maddy comes back upstairs she has a small crate with her. "Look sorry I snapped. I don't bake often, like never. There is only one thing I really know how to make. And there is an easy way to do it and a right way. I got the right way drilled into my head."
"Well since you bake, like never and the only thing different about today than the days before is Robideaux being in town."
"I'll take off one of the favors you owe me." Maddy says out of the blue.
"In return for what?" Nikolas asks suspiciously. Maddy hoarded those favors owed like gold.
"I have to bring Poppi over here. It's not like he's going to be moving in the same circles as Emily anyway. If I don't show him where I'm living I wouldn't put it past him to put a couple of goons on my tail reporting my every move and I really don't want to live that way. They'd be watching this place and that would drive your uncle nuts as long as I'm staying here and Taggart would start getting all protective and it would just be a snarly mess."
"Maddy, stop." Nik holds up a hand. "No problem. This guy has got you in a tizzy.
Maddy takes a deep breath. "Okay I both resent and resemble that remark."
"So what are you going to make to curry this guy's favor?"
"Granny Rosa's cannoli. Poppi knows I'm the only one she told the recipe to since I was the one who always had to go to the store for the ingredients." As she is talking Maddy is unloading some necessary items she hadn't found at the grocery store from the crate. She starts skillfully combining the filling ingredients blending a bit of this and a bit of that with the ricotta base.
"Cannoli that's some kind of Italian pastry right?" Nikolas watches fascinated. For all of Maddy's claim of ineptitude in the baking department she sure looks like she knows what she is doing.
"Sicilian."
"Mr. Robideaux didn't look Sicilian."
"Looks can be deceiving. Poppi is like this filling-- a little of this, a little of that. It happens quite a bit down in New Orleans even if it's not talked about. Take me for example- black right? Well you'd be half right. Lisette says my father was some white guy she met partying one year at Mardi gras. If there was a party then Lisette was there, still is."
"You call your mother Lisette?"
"You call yours Laura." Nik doesn't have an answer for that one. Maddy covers the filling mixture of the cannolis and puts it in the fridge to chill. As soon as that is done she starts combining the dry ingredients for the shells with shortening. She reaches into the crate and pulls out the Marcela wine she wouldn't have been able to get in New York. Maddy doesn't have the connections yet like she had back home to be able to get liquor or wine even. She slowly pours the wine into the pastry base kneading it into a smooth ball and then covers the bowl with a towel. "Okay I'm done here for an hour until I have to roll out the dough. So we have a deal. I bring Poppi over here... let him know where I'm staying until I get my own place. And you don't interfere no matter how loud the fight gets."
"Whoa whoa whoa. You didn't say anything about a fight." Nikolas protests.
"Let me rephrase then. No matter how heated the negotiation gets." Maddy quickly starts cleaning up the kitchen back to it's pristine seldom used condition.
"I'm not going to promise what I can't deliver. How about-- I'll try."
Maddy leans over the counter almost nose to nose with Nik who sits on the other side. "Try real hard."
Francis pulls the limo around to the front of Porter's. Before the car is even stopped Mike is out of the car and starting to assist Emily from the car. Jason unfastens Michael from his booster. Together they follow Sonny out of the back of the car. With five people riding in the back, a limo is definitely the way to go.
Familiar with the weekly routine, Michael goes racing to the front door of the restaurant pushing when he should be pulling to get the door open. Godfather Mike reaches him first and opens the door for him. Michael tears inside coming to a sudden and abrupt halt when he runs into another customer. Michael looks up at the obstruction, way up and his eyes grow wide and he mouths. "Wow."
"Sorry, he's got one speed." Mike tells the stranger as he picks his godson up.
"Oh Gimme!" Rita demands coming out from behind Pete Robideaux to grab Michael right out of Mike's arms. "How's my Mr. Man? Were you good at church? What do you want for breakfast?" Rita and Michael hold dual conversations. The verbal one about the disgusting things that had happened in the child care room at the Queen of Angels and the nonverbal one his order for breakfast using the sign language that Carly had worked with him on before he even could even speak. Rita had picked up the bare bones basics when she had been staying with Carly and AJ while the judge had been on his honeymoon in Mexico with Cookie.
Pete watches in some confusion. "Forgive me, but what is the child doing?"
Emily answers the question. She recognizes Pete from the night before. So this is Maddy's poppi. "Sign. His mother started 'cause she read an article while she was pregnant that it was easier for kids before they learned to speak. Now she wants him to stay bilingual."
"Carly and her damn articles." Jason mutters. "Why don't you catch up with them and make sure he isn't telling Rita he wants chocolate pancakes with chocolate syrup and a glass of chocolate milk."
"Oh that sounds yummy." Em laughs. "Thanks for the idea."
Jason shudders. He waits until Em has moved out of earshot. Now only Jason, Sonny and Pete are standing by the door. "You're here early. Porter's doesn't open for another hour."
"I managed to look pitiful enough for the little one. She and her brother were here early to do some prep work. I am used to my city where they don't roll up the sidewalks." Pete shakes his head ruefully.
"Yeah, but it helps us keep that small town feel." Sonny quips.
"The girl who is with you, she was with Maddy last night at that club-- Luke's." Pete casts out a request for more information.
Jason stone walls saying nothing about his sister. Sonny winces but can't be that rude. "Yeah, she was."
Pete's cell phone rings. "Yeah?... I thought you had business some brunch thing?... kay gimme the address. I'm at Porter's Restaurant. How long will it take the driver to get there? Good." Pete hangs up the call. "Pardon my rudeness. That was Madeleine. She has decided to be more forthcoming with where she is staying." He returns the phone to his jacket pocket. "I want to thank you for your hospitality. I will be returning to New Orleans..." Pete shrugs. "...either tonight or tomorrow. If you are ever in my city..."
Sonny nods. "We'll let you know." He moves out of the way and lets Pete pass. Sonny and Jason look at each other significantly. They are going to have to have a little talk with Maddy Reynolds. It would have been smarter on her part for her to check in with them rather than to have been blindsided by Pete Robideaux's sudden interest in Port Charles.
"Nikolas..." Stefan walks into the back door of Wyndemere lite. "... we have to discuss the party for Alexis and her husband."
"Oh God. What are you doing here?" Maddy mutters. She'd just gotten off the phone with Poppi and knows he is on his way here. Will probably be here in about ten minutes.
"Nikolas is here." Stefan is taken aback by Maddy's utterance. "I saw his vehicle out back."
"Doesn't anyone sleep in around here?" Maddy protests. She checks the temperature of the oil on the stove. As soon as it got to 350-375 she could finishing making the shells. The shells were better made as close to eating as possible it gave them less time to get soggy.
"What are you making?" Stefan wonders.
"You were looking for your nephew. He is over there..." Maddy waves in the direction of the rest of the house. "...somewhere. Look why don't you go get him and then the both of you can go plan the party over at your house with Mrs. Landsbury since she will be doing all the work anyway."
Stefan allows himself a small smile at Maddy's back. The girl wanted him gone, and Nikolas as well. Being the perverse and troublesome man he can be, Stefan pulls up a chair at the dining room table. "I think I'll just wait here."
Maddy growls looking over her shoulder at Stefan's smug visage as he settles in as if he's planning on spending the winter. Stalking over to the door that separates the kitchen from the rest of the house, she throws the door open and screams. "CANDY!"
"Damn it, Maddy! How many times do I have to ask you... Uncle? Did I forget an appointment?"
"No, but I thought we should consult on not only the party for your Aunt but also a present for her to honor her tawdry nuptials in Las Vegas to that lounge reptile, Ned Ashton."
"It's lizard, lounge lizard!" Maddy shakes her head. "And I'll tell ya the perfect gift, free of charge, ear plugs! She can use them whether she is around you or her in-laws."
"Your tenant seems to be rather out of sorts." Stefan says mildly.
"His tenant is in the room." Maddy protests. She sighs when Nik takes a seat across from Stefan. They were both settling in with no intention of going anywhere.
"Hey Maddy, you got any coffee on?" Lucky yawns as he walks in the backdoor running his fingers through his bedhead causing his hair to stand up all over rather than just on one side.
"Doesn't anyone knock anymore?"
"What bug is up your..." Lucky looks around and sees not only his brother but also the Vamp from across the lake. "Oh nevermind. That answers that question."
"Get coffee. Take one for Elizabeth too and then get out." Maddy demands.
Not taking offense, Lucky grabs a couple of mugs and starts filling them. He sniffs the air and leans over the counter to see what Maddy is making. "Damn! Is that cannoli? You're making cannoli from scratch? I haven't had any decent cannoli since the 'rents and I were traveling through Sicily when I was a kid." Lucky tries to look pitiful.
"If you go away I will save you one... two." Maddy tries to negotiate even as she is filling the pastry bag with the chilled ricotta mixture. "And you, a chess game for free and Nik, I'll shop for a wedding present for your aunt for you."
Lucky slides into a free chair at the dining room table. "She's trying really hard to get rid of us, isn't she? I guess that means the Mountain is coming to Mohammed this morning, probably any time now."
There is a knock on the back door.