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The Triumph Of AJ Quartermaine
Chapter Fourteen
In the Midnight hour
"Told you we'd get back in time." AJ leans against the back of the elevator.
"Hopefully." Carly frowns. "It's the first time Michael has been with a babysitter." AJ looks at her oddly. "Leticia is NOT a babysitter; she's the nanny. She's been around Michael all of his life. Jason's only been away from Michael twice before: once overnight on business and Michael stayed with Bobbie and the time he spent at the mansion... what two or three days until Jason and Braindead were rescued from the plane crash?"
AJ nods. "And Emily didn't let the baby out of her sight. I didn't have the results of the bloodwork yet and you were locked up for shooting Tony."
"Emily is a great godmother to Michael. She doesn't care for me, ofcourse; she liked Robin and adores Michael."
"I'm not looking forward to telling her about all this. Emily hates being lied to. I feel like that's all I've been doing."
Carly shrugs. "You aren't going to have to tell her anything. She'll have her mind made up by the time we get back to Port Charles."
AJ falls silent as the elevator doors open, walking the brief distance to the suite door he has his card ready to slide into the lock. Carly goes immediately to check on the sleeping baby while AJ pays the babysitter, thanking her and walking her to the door. "He's still asleep?" AJ asks when Carly returns.
"Like a lamb." Carly kicks off her shoes and curls up on a chair. "I had a great time tonight."
"It was a good game."
"Jason will have taken the fax to the attorney by now." Carly changes the subject abruptly.
"It's probably driving him nuts; he'll take the deal, Carly. It's better than what he can get in court. He won't know about our agreement until it is too late."
"Jason will probably think of it as another perk. I know that Sonny and Robin would." Carly replies ruefully.
"One year, Carly. For one year from the date the judge signs off on the agreement, you don't talk to Jason, communicate with him, or see him."
"But AJ, if I can't make Jason's life a living hell what shall I do?" Carly retorts mendaciously.
"You said I couldn't withhold Michael even if Jason deserved it. " AJ reminds.
"Even though YOU think he deserves it." Carly clarifies.
"But I can withhold you, with your consent, and he won't know any more than he thought I knew about Michael." AJ's tongue twists around the convuluted thought.
"Jason will be informed of EVERYTHING concerning Michael."
"I'll tell him myself-- every step, tooth or word. Jason won't be out of anything to do with Michael-- Just Michael's mother. And having no contact with you will ensure that Jason keeps the visitation schedule. The only thing my brother and I seem to agree on is that Michael will not be separated from his mother." Just then Michael wakes. AJ rises to check on his son, book in hand.
Leaning her head back against the couch, Carly mutters to herself. "Will you even care what I did for you, Jase? Or is this only MY punishment for deceiving AJ?" Listening to AJ on the monitor, Carly can't resist a smile at AJ's attempt to sound excited and enthusiastic while telling Michael about the number of square feet in the Madison Square Garden.
About twenty minutes later AJ comes out to find Carly on the phone. He raises a brow as he comes over to her. "What's up?"
"I didn't feel like sleeping. I called room service they are going to send up some snacks. I hope that was okay with you or am not to touch a phone for the next year?" Carly snaps defensively.
"I hope you got enough for two. I'm feeling wide awake as well." AJ goes over to the stereo and searching for a station finds some music keeping it low even though Michael seems to be out like a light. "So do you want to just stare at each other for awhile or do you want to hear the next step of the plan?"
"Enlighten me, Machiavelli. What's next."
"Money."
"Well, if I wasn't awake-- I am now. What about it?"
"If you're to keep your promise about not contacting Jason then you can't rely on him for money. It's a way that he could control or try to contact you."
"So are you expecting me to get a job when I get back to PC?"
AJ shakes his head. "Not unless you want to. Michael comes first. I don't want Leticia to be Michael's nanny at our house, her loyalty would be to Jason; it would be like having a spy in the house. And I'm sure that you don't want one of the nannies Grandfather might pick. I was hoping that you would be okay with taking full time care of Michael."
"Are you saying that you are going to pay me to take care of my son?" Carly's eyes narrow as she feels insulted.
"No, Only that we'll have to make different arrangements if you decide you want to go back to work full or part time. Carly, you aren't going to HAVE to work outside the house. The question is, do you WANT to work or do you WANT to stay home fulltime with Michael."
"I want to be with my son but you said this conversation was about money. I don't have any."
"Yeah, you do."
"What have you done?"
"Grandfather signed over a percentage of ELQ to you and Michael." Carly's mind starts to race. "I can see the wheels turning from here. They're nonvoting shares, or should I say a trustee votes them--Me. All the income from them is yours; I'll never ask what you do with your money-- only if you ask me for money."
"And what does Edward want in exchange for this money?"
"He wants Michael under his roof. It's not going to happen. He will have more access to Michael than Jason would have given him so we have to be on guard. He'll try the same thing with us that he pulled on you and Jason."
"Splitting, I read all about it in the child development books."
"Right, I'm going to do all I can to insulate us using ELQ. But it's tough to be bulletproof in a family business with a propensity to vote out CEO's every quarter."
"Ned is CEO now?" Carly questions.
"Yes, but there's a meeting coming up and I'm going to make a run at the CEO position. With you and Michael supporting me, it will be easier whether I get it or not."
"Who gets a vote?" Carly's eyes gleam at the thought of a fight, and one for which she wouldn't get called on the carpet.
"Grandfather, grandmother, Tracy, dad, mom, Ned, Sonny, Katherine, me and me voting your proxy."
"An even number-- who breaks the ties?"
"Well your block is a new addition but I think that the bylaws have the current CEO breaking the ties."
"So you have to have six.. five won't do it 'cause no way is Ned going to give up the show." Carly mutters trying to make the math work.
"Grandfather normally votes grandmother's and Tracy's proxy."
"Normally? Why do I get the feeling that you have something up?"
"I have an appointment with Tracy this week. My dear aunt won't do it out of love but if it ticks off Grandfather and Ned she might bite. You've never met Tracy have you?"
"Nope, didn't she get banished from the family cause she sided with Jax or something."
"Yeah, and pushed all of Lois' buttons so that she ended up splitting making Ned miserable. Grandfather doesn't mind fighting within the family to control the company but he doesn't want it ending up in the hands of outsiders like Jax. Once she lost her power base at ELQ, she tossed in with the Solitos."
"Your aunt is in the MOB! And Edward gives Jason a ration? I mean please-- his own daughter?"
"Tracy's angle will be that it'll be easier to play me than Ned. She has a smidge of loyalty to Ned and absolutely none for me; she'd love to see me at the bottem of a bottle again if it meant she could snatch control of the family."
"Alan and Monica?"
"Will vote for me. They both feel they owe me."
"So you have four, maybe five, who else? Lila isn't going to put herself in the middle and Sonny will vote with Ned just 'cause of poor dead Brenda or because he is going to be ticked at you-- Katherine."
"Right, I think I have a way to get her shares totally out from under her. That's still coming together."
Carly does a quick count on her fingers. "So you want to set it up not to need Edward's vote."
"Grandfather changes his mind as often as you buy shoes. Counting on him for anything is a mistake, one my father made, I've made and Ned has made. The key to controlling him is to NOT need him. Make him need you."
"If you do win, especially going over Edward it's going to put him right in Ned's court."
"So I'll have to be good at what I do."
"They'll never know what hit them. I know I didn't."
"Enough family politics." AJ changes the subject writing a healthy five figure number on a piece of paper. "This is the dividend from the last quarter. I've already deposited it in a Happy Family account. The account is yours: spend it, invest it, save it, tuck it away for Michael or burn it. It's yours. There won't be a martini shaker in the house, not even one stuffed with mad money. Like I said, I won't question what you do with your money only if you ask me for some of mine."
"Household accounts?" Carly questions. "I mean come on, we're furnishing a four bedroom house from scratch!"
"Has there been a problem so far?" AJ shrugs. "If I'm with you and I like it, I'll buy it. If you like it, you buy it. I know that your thinking might be skewed by living with Jason but there is more money coming in every quarter than a family of four normally gets for a year. It just won't buy you a full length sable coat every quarter." AJ has a look of distaste at the last.
"Just what do you have against my coat anyway? Is it that Jason bought it or what?" Carly snaps.
"Other than you, I know of three women that have a coat like that-- Lila, Helena Cassadine and Amanda Barrington. What do they have in common?"
"You mean besides being filthy rich?" Carly quips defensively.
"And being old enough to be your grandmother-- God forbid." AJ snaps back. "you don't wear that coat; it wears you. It screams *look at me I've got money to burn*. That's exactly the message that you don't want to send when you have Michael with you. If it isn't some anti-fur activist tossing red paint on you or some down and outer thinking if you have that much to spend on a coat --to play in the park for Christ's sake-- how much will you pay to get your kid back?"
Carly's head snaps back as if slapped and she pales with flush of red at her cheeks. "I would never do anything to endanger Michael!" AJ gives her a yeah right look. "ON PURPOSE!... I would never do anything to endanger Michael-- on purpose! You really hate my coat?"
"How much do I hate that coat... hmm it wouldn't surprise me if Katherine Bell had one in her closet."
"Oh that was LOW." Carly laughs; the tension in the room defused. "AJ, I love that coat. It feels so sensuous and soft; and I've never had a warmer coat." Carly weedles. "But Katherine Bell? I don't know if I'll be able to look at it the same way again. You are a cruel and sneaky man."