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The Triumph Of AJ Quartermaine
Memories
Late night on Sunday in the study of the Happy Family house after everyone has left. Michael is asleep upstairs. Carly looks over the notebook of options that she had made talking with Jerry. She rubs her eyes and looks up from the information that had started to blend together. Staring into the fire, she speaks to AJ who sits at the desk boning up on his expected meeting with Katherine Bell in the morning.
"Today was a good day, wasn't it?"
"I had fun." AJ leans back. "So what were you, Bobbie and Emily talking about upstairs? Whenever one of us asked you'd all get an impish gleam in your eyes."
Tongue firmly in cheek. "Oh just girl talk."
"Be afraid be very afraid." AJ mutters to himself.
Carly rises and crosses to the desk. She settles in on the desk top crossing her legs and setting one of the black boot shod foot swinging. "What are you working on?"
"My meeting with Katherine Bell tomorrow. I checked voice mail today..."
"You got her!" Carly crows, her leg still swinging.
"Um yeah, " AJ is distracted by Carly's legs encased in familiar black boots.
"AJ, are you okay?" Carly leans forward concerned. Putting the back of her hand against his forehead to check for a fever. "We were outside a lot today. And you did get soaked."
"I'm hot but no I don't have a fever. Did you think I wouldn't remember these?" AJ runs his hands up the inside of the boots. With a slow hand he unzips one caressing the bare calf beneath it and then the other.
"AJ." Carly breathes biting her lip.
"Shush. I'm remaking a memory."
The penthouse--
Jason comes from the kitchen. His hair is wet and he's changed into casual clothes.
"Let me see your hands." Sonny demands. Grabbing one hand he grunts as he notices that the blood has started to return. "You know not being able to feel the cold doesn't mean that you can't freeze your ass off out there. It's Winter in upstate New York. It'll kill you."
"You're starting to sound like Mike." Jason pulls his hands away.
"No need to get nasty. So what did that little pus pocket have to say for himself?"
Jason sits on the couch. He is lost in thought for awhile. Then he starts speaking. "He said that I left Carly in Ferncliffe because all I wanted was Michael. He said that he and Carly were always great friends that he wanted her even if I didn't. He said that I was blind to her charms. That they had spent the time in New York shopping, playing and sleeping together. He said that the best was waking up next to Carly, the best since the night that Michael was conceived."
"Sleeping, waking up." Sonny muses. "Jason, when you talk about Carly you talk about having sex with her no euphemisms-- just straight out blunt. What if AJ is doing the same? I know it's a long shot. But..."
"I knew this was coming. He wants her; he's always wanted her. AJ said that the plan had been for him to cut me out totally. What did Carly do to get him to negotiate? What if he is telling her the same thing-- that I left her in Ferncliffe?" Jason looks miserable.
"But you didn't; you got her out as soon as you could." Sonny reassures.
"I threatened her, you know. I told her I'd leave her in Ferncliffe if she didn't follow my rules. I had the release paper in my hand and I wouldn't sign until she agreed. She would have done anything to get out of there. She was going crazy and I knew it. She had that look on her face like the one that you get when you're in jail."
"Jason, you were trying to make things work."
"I made it impossible. I put her down in Robin's turf then expected them not to fight. That's not Carly."
"Then Robin realized that she was losing and she went to AJ." Sonny thinks aloud. Jason nods. "And AJ knew that his time was up that he had to move. And move fast before you got Carly and Michael out of Port Charles. But you saw Michael today right? At church?"
"Emily was there with Michael but not Carly. So I went looking for her. I ran into AJ while I was waiting for Carly."
"What do you want to do? We can still arrange for all of you to go down to the casino. You, Carly and your son. It's just a matter of snatching them up."
"What if she wants to be with AJ?" Jason asks.
The Brownstone--
Bobbie crawls into bed with Jerry and getting payback for the earlier snow ball slides her feet up against him. Jerry jumps as though shocked. Bobbie grins secretively. "Oh I'm sorry, were my feet cold?"
"You know they are!" Jerry shivers.
"Oh but it makes you looks so perky." Bobbie says with relish and an evil glint.
Jerry groans. "Ah payback, I should have known." He throws back the covers and grabs hold of one of Bobbie's feet and starts rubbing it warming it up then starting on the other rubbing it then starts massaging it nearly distracting Bobbie from the question that she wanted to ask."
"You are too good at that." Bobbie moans settling back in against the pillows on the bed. One of the straps of her nightgown drifts down exposing dangerous curves before she absently pushes it back up. "What were you and Carly talking about for so long tonight?"
"AJ has set up an income for her and Michael. But there is some play in the trust. Edward could try to take the income back to control her or where Michael lives. I gave her some ideas for some investments that will insulate her from whatever the Q's try to pull, Morgan either."
"What do you have against Jason anyway?" Bobbie asks pulling her foot away from Jerry knowing that she won't be able to think much longer.
"What did you have against me?" Jerry shrugs. "Just because I'm eternally grateful that you didn't hold my being mobbed up against me forever doesn't mean that I think that your daughter should be hooked up with a gangster. There is the other element to think of. Morgan is fine with you being around Michael. Me on the other hand, is another story and don't think I don't know it. He's got his reasons; I did try to kill the man at the dock ground breaking. But sooner or later he'll come between us-- make you choose between your grandson and being with me."
"It's more than that." Bobbie muses. "You sympathize with AJ. You don't even really know him. You said something about that before about being the Jacks family screw up."
"I didn't say screw up, luv." Jerry takes his place beside Bobbie in the bed cuddling her close. Her head rests against his chest his arms surround her.
"So I'm sanitizing abit. Jerry, you are the best thing that has happened to me..." She ponders for a minute. "...ever. And I hate that you feel that way."
"I understand what AJ wants. You know what the corporation name is that he created for him and Carly is called ... the one that he used to buy the house? Happy Family. That's exactly what I've found with you and Lucas. No one is looking for the golden boy around here and it's a feeling I've never known. I think I've tried to make myself indispensible to you because I've known all my life what it was like to be dispensable. I've lived it and so has AJ. That doesn't mean that I won't hurt him if he hurts your family. But he knows that too. You Spencer women have the knack of making the man you're with feel like a hero and making us not want to disappoint you."
"Oh Jerry." Bobbie reaches up and kisses Jerry on the mouth. Jerry reaches over and turns off the light.