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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Ninety Six
Business As Unusual
Wednesday afternoon
Two weeks two days before the cast comes off. Emily sits at her Deception desk having just arrived from the house after her schedule of tutoring. Maddy had been stressed out. She evidently had a big project coming due. The stupid client had given her no notice whatsoever and was now expecting miracles. Some huge Halloween party she's coordinating. Em had offered to help but Maddy had turned her down. It's a challenge. I'll get it done. Even if I have to kill the client.
Em's secretary comes into the office with a stack of messages. "Your afternoon is booked. I managed to save you some time to eat but you said schedule all the way to six so the last meeting is a dinner meeting with Ned and Jax."
"That works I guess." Blowing off Monday even for something as great as a shopping trip with Rita and Maddy had made things a little crazy around here. "What's up first?"
"The art department has some ideas to run by you on packaging for the new perfume. Then you've got advertising, they're crying cause Vogue didn't give them the extra ten percent."
"That was only if Jax and Ned interviewed. They both refused besides Ned is an old married man now... again."
"Oh Vogue loved that. They want an interview with Alexis. Even though she'd end up with a black scarf across her face if they saw her lately."
"Oh?"
"Yeah she's been wearing this stuff that makes her look out of the roaring twenties or something. You know like a proper young lady off to the wherever's in her jalopy. Lots of wool and skirts down to her ankles. Now I like skirts and all but these are too long! "
"I wonder what she is wearing to this thing on Saturday?" Emily mutters.
"Saturday?"
"Yeah, the Cassadine's are throwing a do for the newlyweds. They only eloped a little bit ago it's not like they'd have time to do it up all crazy right?"
"You never know. They are afterall-- Cassadines." The secretary walks back to the door. "You've got thirty minutes of you time before your first appointment comes up. I'll hold them off to the exact time."
"Thanks." Em says gratefully. Grabbing her phone and the rolodex she starts on the first phone call. She pulls one of the projects on her desk while she is waiting for the person on the other end to pick up the phone. "Hello, Gary Winslow please. It's Emily Quartermaine calling. Yes, I'll hold."
Alexis lays on the couch in Ned's office at L&B. She has her eyes covered with one arm. Ned is behind his desk glancing at his computer screen and hmming every once in awhile. "...We eloped to avoid all this. So now the Cassadine's are throwing a party and you know the Q's will feel like they have to throw one and it will have to be bigger even though you've been married five times for goodness sake." {author note-- no Chloe remember?}
"It's a disgrace." Ned says absently. Alexis had been on this rant since Stefan had thrown the party at her.
"Oh My God!" Alexis blanches. "Do you think they're expecting us to throw a party to return the favor?! Ned, are you paying attention?"
"Nope. Whatever you decide is fine, dear." Alexis reaches down and grabs one of her pumps and then twisting on the couch throws it at Ned's head. "OW! What was that for?"
"If I'm going to go nuts you're going with me. I may be new to this marriage thing but I seem to remember a share and share alike clause in the contract."
Ned turns off his computer and reaching down to the floor grabs the pump that Alexis had tossed at him. Walking over to the couch he slides in on the far end. He puts the pump back on her foot and then rests both of her feet onto his lap. "This is what we get for eloping."
"Edward told us to elope. Told us we were setting a bad example for Emily and for Brooke too. Have you talked to Lois?" Alexis asks suspiciously. She wouldn't put it past her new hubby to leave that one to her. Brooke was suppose to fly up from Bensonhurst to spend a week with Ned starting the Friday before the party.
"Talked to Gloria. Everything is all set. Brooke is really excited about coming up. She even went out and bought a new Barbie overnight case for the adventure. All the arrangements have been made with the airlines."
"Isn't she a little young to be flying on her own?"
"That's the reason she's excited. Not that I'm getting married. Don't worry, Alexis. Brooke has been traveling with Lois right up until she started going to school. Once she started school she had to start sticking closer to home. The kid already knows all the states and their capitols." Ned brags.
"Life and lemonade, I guess." Alexis starts breaking out in a sweat. "What made me think I could do this? Marriage it's ridiculous. And kids-- that's beyond scary. A little human being. It's not like we both don't know how to screw them up. I've got over three hundred years of tradition to fall back on. And your family, forget tradition they come up with new ways every day. They'll be lucky to last a few generations."
"Then it's a good thing I brought in some new blood." Ned teases.
"You are getting a kick out of all this uproar. I swear, Ned...."
"Honey," Ned interrupts. "Aren't you suppose to be in front of Judge Porter in about twenty minutes? Some contract thing."
Alexis jerks her watch to her face. "Oh great, now I'm late." She springs to her feet. Leaning over swiftly, she kisses Ned on the mouth and grabs her briefcase at the same time. "I'll see you at the gatehouse tonight; remember you have a dinner meeting with Em at Deception." She is half way out the door before Ned has time to recover.
Bemused Ned laughs. "I love you too, honey." Ned looks at the computer. He should be working on that distribution deal. And deciding how many CD's to press of Miguel's new Spanish only album. Or figuring out which single was going to be an internet only release. Deciding which director for the new video. Shaking his head, he picks up the guitar and starts plucking away. He grabs a piece of sheet music and a pencil. He works through a few chords and then stops to write them down. The other stuff would still be there later. If he didn't get this song down, he'd lose it.
Nik wanders throughout Wyndemere. After an early morning ride on Sheba and checking in at the hospital in the morning to make sure that the well oiled machine that is the volunteer program hadn't hit a snag. Wyndemere is buzzing with people: Cleaning people, catering people, music people. There were people here he had no clue as to who was doing what. Finally he reaches the room that Mrs. Lansbury has turned into command central. "Hello Mrs. Lansbury."
"Master Nikolas!" Mrs. L starts. "Is there something I can get for you?"
"Actually I was about to ask you the same thing. Is there anything I can do for you."
"Oh no everything is on schedule." by the shortest of hairs on my head. "I can manage. Shouldn't you be working on your own house, sir?"
"I've been kicked out of my house. Both of them. Maddy snagged my cottage keys from me when I wasn't looking and left me a note. She and the designer are going over to the cottage to see what can be used at the house." Nikolas gives a heavy sigh. "Everything construction wise is done with the house. Or at least everything until we start landscaping in the spring."
Mrs. Lansbury bites her lip. "Well now that you mention it there is something you could do for me, and I hope you won't take offense."
"No, of course not. I offered."
"Please could you get Master Stefan out of here. I know the noise is distressing to him-- just until dinner." I can get ten times as much stuff done if I don't have the two of you under foot.
"Not only will I get him out of the house, I'll get him off the island."
"I know he'll appreciate it." and so will I
"Right." you aren't fooling me, Mrs. L. I'm hanging around the master manipulator now.
"Jax, I still can't believe that you let that little girl talk you into giving the research guys a raise, optical, and all the soda's they can drink. It's pandering." in my day we just broke a few knuckles and they were glad to have a job.
"You don't know what she is like, Dad. I'm beginning to think Alexis is right. She is a monster in training. Watch this." Jax leans his head into Emily's office where she is engrossed in a computer model of an upcoming ad. "Em, what have you heard about...." Jax names off a company.
Em doesn't look up from what she is doing so she doesn't see John Jacks standing next to his son. "They aren't going to make their production numbers this quarter, having chip problems. And their head of marketing just quit to go work for the competition and took their top salesmen with him."
"Thanks."
"Sure, see you at dinner." Em says absently.
"You see what I mean?" Jax hisses at his father as they walk down the hallway. "She doesn't even know she's doing it."
"How do you know she is right?"
"It was a test so you could see. I wouldn't ask her a question I didn't know the answer to. This R&D thing she had the numbers before I did, she developed the numbers. I was blindsided, Dad."
"How much does she know about J&J?" John asks suspiciously. "Edward has come at us before when I had my heart attack."
"Oh I don't think she'd come after us. But what if Carly asked her the same question about J&J. She's got all the info and Carly has the motivation. As Jerry pointed out to me before the horseshow, he doesn't have a stake in J&J anymore. Only us."
"You don't think.... nah, Bobbie and Lady Jane are getting along like gangbusters. Bobbie has been helping her look for a house in town. Carly wouldn't..." Jax stops in his tracks and just looks at his father. "Ah hell. I'll put the office on notice of any stock activity."
"Nikolas, I'm not sure this is a good idea."
"Well you had to get off the island. Mrs. Lansbury has her hands full with the party. And there is no way you could focus with all the commotion."
"Yes, I understand why I'm here but I'm wondering why you are free this afternoon. Normally you would be at your project, making lists and such."
"Larry did the final walk through yesterday. Everything is now in the hands of his partner, the designer, and..." Nikolas' voice drops to a mutter, "Maddy."
"Did you say Madeleine?" Stefan quirks a brow.
"Um yeah, I hired her to get the house ready. Hired her, didn't ask her for a favor." Nik emphasizes. "She stole my keys today. The keys to the cottage to see what could be used at the house. So I'm at loose ends until she contacts me. At least she left me the keys to the jag."
"Nikolas...."
"I know, I know but it's easier to do things this way. My schedule is more flexible than hers. She told me up front that she could only give me a few hours a day. And she's got more of a crunch than Mrs. L since she's working with an empty house and Larry's partner who is a fuss budget."
"And so you brought me up here." Stefan looks around.
"Well sure I figured we could go riding. But if I were you I'd take the vet's horse rather than Mr. Roberts. I don't know how Carly would react to you riding her gelding." Nikolas goes into the stables via the tack room picking up the tack he needs for Sheba and the vet's horse. He and Stefan go into the stalls.
"What is through the other door?"
"That's Carly's office and the vets apartment."
"Fortuitous having a vet on the premises."
"She's actually a vet student. She gets free room and board for herself and her horse. I pay her to keep an eye on Sheba for when I can't get up here. It's a cooperative thing."
Stefan frowns. "From everything I know of young Mrs. Quartermaine I would have thought that cooperation was not in her vocabulary." Stefan's voice is muffled as he works on saddling his mount for the afternoon.
"No kidding. If you hadn't been married to Bobbie there is no way I would have gotten Sheba placed up here. And I don't think that the zoning would have allowed me to keep the horse at the house." Nik leans firmly into Sheba who has a habit of sucking in air when you tried to tighten the girth around his stomach. If you didn't watch recognize what the horse was doing you'd end up in the dirt when the saddle started sliding around on the horse's back rather than staying firm.
Nik and Stefan walk the horses out into the corral and saddle up. Stefan looks back at the stables. "It's an excellent design, very functional."
"Carly and AJ came up with the specs themselves. It's designed to be safer for the animals and the humans in case of a fire."
"A Spencer would think of that." Stefan frowns. Since it had been a Spencer who had burned down the stables at Wyndemere. He reaches down to the gate of the corral and undoes it so that he and Nikolas can take the trails around the property.
The two horses are barely out of sight when Carly comes up the drive with Rita and Michael in her SUV. "Okay kid get into your riding clothes. And get Mr. Roberts ready. I'm going to set the corral up for the lesson. I got the requirements for the next class."
"You think Lucas is going to be in it too."
"Wouldn't surprise me. Last time we talked he was talking about working some jumps."
"Brat." Rita mutters. "I want to wear my new boots."
"Fine, but you're the one that's going to be polishing them afterward." Carly shrugs. "Those are your show boots. So you better take good care of them." Carly pulls Michael out of his booster seat in the back seat and turns around after setting Michael on the ground. "It looks as if Nikolas is here. And he left the gate open." Carly bitches. "He's going to hear about that!" Carly and Michael go into the corral. Michael trails around after her throwing dirt clods as Carly manhandles some obstructions for Rita to jump for practice. Carly doesn't even look back but her mother instinct kicks in. "Michael Quartermaine Morgan, if you throw that dirt clod at me, you are on time out. NO Teletubbies." Carly hears a long pause and then a clod hits one of the boards in the fence instead.
Rita changes fast and comes out into the corral leading Mr. Roberts. Michael goes over to the corral fence and starts climbing it so he is nearer to eye level with the Morgan. Reaching into his picket, he pulls out a wedge of apple. "No, Michael. Not until after Mr. Roberts is done working." Rita tells him. She fastens the Morgan's reins to the fence and picks Michael up. "Here, you go riding too. And when I'm done you can feed Mr. Robert's apples while I brush him." Michael starts turning red but Rita is familiar with the signs and starts working to distract him first dropping her riding helmet on his head. "Whoops wrong one." The helmet drops around Michael's nose. "Here-- this one is yours." She plops on Michael's helmet and starts giving him smooches.
Carly goes over to Mr. Roberts and starts double checking his tack, tightening the girth a notch. Rita didn't put all her oomph into it. "Come on, I have to be home by six. And you and Mr. Roberts need to get warmed up. Rita races over to the horse, slowing down as she nears. Carly makes a step with her hands and boosts Rita into the saddle. "Walk... trot.. canter around the ring. Work on form. Everything precise. I don't want to see any of your signals and I'm going to be looking. Carly moves into the middle of the ring. Mr. Roberts steps out sharply, head up and alert. Rita's hands are soft on the reins knowing the Mr. Robert's mouth is like butter and the least pressure on it would instantly responded. After about a quarter circuit of the ring. Carly snaps her fingers and calls out. "Trot!" She works a combination of transitions to warm up horse and rider and see if she can trick Rita into showing what she is doing.
About 45 minutes later, Stefan and Nikolas are wandering back to the corral having checked out the woods, the stream and taking a wild gallop around an open field above the stables. Nik feels himself relax as the sun starts setting and the colors darken around them in the woods. This had been a good idea, a very good idea.
Stefan is also more relaxed than he has been in quite some time but frowns. "I think that someone is at the stables."
Nik listens carefully. "Carly must be giving Rita a lesson."
"Rita?"
"The little girl who was kidnapped with Emily. Judge Porter's daughter."
"Yes, of course." They break through to the clearing where the corral is in time to see Mr. Roberts balk at a jump. Rita reels him around and is about to go at it again when Carly calls out to her and starts walking up to the horse.
"Oh hell no!" Nikolas spurs Sheba into a gallop racing toward the corral. He gets there just as Carly is about to mount up. "No way! No way in hell!"
"Who the hell you think you are?"
"The one who is going to tell your husband you're taking jumps if you put one foot in that horse's stirrup."
"Oh please. Mr. Roberts could walk over that." Carly refers to the obstruction.
"Yeah, but he didn't, did he?" Nikolas dismounts and throws Sheba's reins over a board in the fence. "I'll do it."
"Use your own damn horse." Carly demands furious at almost being caught at something she'd told AJ she wouldn't do. "And see if you can remember to close the gate this time. Rita, mount up." As soon as Nik is in the ring and the gate secured behind him Carly starts pointing and tersely calling out the obstructions and the order she wants them taken in. "Rita, watch closely. If he's screwing up I want to know how."
Nik exhales to calm back down again. Taking a smooth canter around the corral he takes the jumps smoothly one by one and in the order Carly had demanded. Stefan arrives in time to watch the display. "There satisfied?"
"What did he do wrong, Rita?" Carly questions the young equestrian.
"You mean besides not wearing his helmet?"
"Yeah, beyond that act of extreme stupidity." Nik winces at Carly's caustic tones.
"He looked okay to me, other than that."
"That's 'cause he was letting Sheba carry him over the the fences rather than the other way around. You were leaning too far forward in the saddle. Mr. Roberts knew you were off balance and that's why he didn't do the fence. 'Cause you would have fallen off if he would have. You remember the order?"
"Yeah. I got it." Rita nods. She takes a second to make sure her helmet is fastened tightly. Nik pulls in next to Carly and watches from astride Sheba as Rita canters around the ring and then starts going over the jumps this time letting Mr. Roberts do the work. As soon as she has cleared all the hurdles, Carly directs her to take the gelding back to the stables.
"Don't you ever interfere in my lessons again. And don't leave the gate open." Carly stalks over to where Michael is playing in his play stall and snatches him up going into the stables. Nik just shakes his head.
"Young Mrs. Quartermaine had a point." Stefan comments from the other side of the fence. He loosely holds the horse's reins as he leans up against the fence. "You have always distained a helmet; it's a poor example for the child."
"And your helmet is where?" Nik reminds with a raised brow. Dismounting from Sheba, he walks his horse back into the stables. Stefan follows, this time making sure that the gate is closed.
As they are resituating the horses they can hear Carly inside Mr. Robert's stall. "Rita, put the kettle on. Michael, I'm ready for the soft brush now." Michael climbs onto the trunk outside of Mr. Robert's stall and pushes the big soft brush through the bars with both hands.
"Apple, Mama?"
"Sure, go ahead. Mr. Roberts worked really hard today."
"Good horsey." Michael croons extending his flattened hand with the apple wedge on it. "Mine."
Carly thinks fast. Jason would probably say it was Michael's choice and get him a damn horse. AJ had a little bit more sense. "No. Mama's horse. Michael's not getting a horse until papa says so."
"Daddy." Michael negotiates cagily.
"No, Papa." Carly says firmly.
"Grandpa." Michael suggests an alternative.
"No, Papa." Carly says impatiently.
"Who wants hot chocolate?" Rita saves the day from the office. Michael goes running. Carly sighs heavily. What was the old curse passed from mother to child? May you get a child just like you. And I'm reupping for another one. Maybe I really do need my head examined.