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The Triumph Of AJ Quartermaine
Chapter Thirty Six
Custody.
About an hour before dawn AJ gives up the pretense of slumber. Sighing he rises from the iron bed that Carly had picked out for him and heads into the adjoining bathroom to shower, shampoo and shave. Forty minutes later he is dressed in a suit suitable for court. Looking through his ties he puts on the finishing touch of the conservative image he wants to present to the judge. Everything was ready, everything was in order but he still can't shake the feeling that anything could happen today. He takes a last look in the full length mirror running a hand down his tie before going downstairs to the kitchen.
The lights are already on in the kitchen when AJ enters and the coffee pot half empty. Carly sits at the kitchen table with a cold cup of coffee in front of her. She is dressed in a nightgown and robe. "Two days in a row. You're going to blow your image." AJ teases as he pours himself a cup of coffee.
"I couldn't sleep." Carly tiredly replies and looks over at AJ. He looks like a judge's dream of a custodial parent. "You look good. Course it's HOURS until we have to go to court. I don't think I closed my eyes at all last night."
"It'll be okay, Carly. Jason and the Judge will go along with the agreement; this is just a formality."
"You know I'd be much more convinced if you were upstairs asleep rather than girded for a battle at 5:30 in the morning."
"Hey I was the kid up at dawn for Christmas too. It's an important day." AJ downplays his tension not wanting to feed into Carly's fears.
"What do you think the Judge is going to say to me? What do you know about this guy anyway? Could he take Michael away from all of us? I mean come on AJ the last time I was in a courtroom Tony had just been given a walk for kidnapping Michael."
AJ shrugs. "He's an honest, no BS kind of guy, Carly. His priority will be Michael. As long as things stay sane and reasonable he'll go along with what we decide. But if things get out of hand then he'll take control. I saw that in the inchambers when he called Mac on the carpet for slamming you. And this meeting today will be in his chambers again. No court rooms. He was also really specific that it was going to be the three of us: you, me and Jason."
"So if Edward shows up he'll throw him in Jail if he says anything?" Carly's eyes glint with the glimmer of an idea.
"No, you aren't going to set Grandfather up." AJ nips that idea in the bud. "We have the board meeting tomorrow, remember."
"The board meeting might go a lot smoother if Edward were in jail on a contempt charge." Carly wrinkles her nose and gives a secret smirk.
AJ laughs out loud unable to resist the picture of Edward chewing nails in PCJail blues. "He'd pay the fine and be out in time for the meeting. Don't even think about it. " AJ grows serious. "Carly, I'm going to ask the judge to seal the agreement. I don't want our business to be all over the Herald or the Intruder. It still might end up there but let them have to work for it."
"That would be better for Michael." Carly nods. "We're big enough to take it but it's safer for him to stay out of the press."
"Will it make you feel better or worse to start thinking about what is going to happen after today?"
"Anything to take my mind off things-- why?"
"I know that you've been working like crazy, pardon the expression, to block whatever Grandfather might try to pull on you. It got me thinking about what he might pull on me. Grandfather is nothing if not predictable."
"Then he'll try to isolate me from you the same way that he tried to split me from Jason. Try to work me against you."
"How are you going to deal with that?"
"In the way that will tick him off the most, Sorry AJ, he may be your family and Michael's great grandfather but I'm getting tired of him butting his nose in my business."
"You'll come to me?"
"First. But when it comes to Michael-- if I can't get hold of you then I'm going to Jason. Our agreement be damned. Keep that man off my back." AJ's eyes narrow considering Carly's words. Carly takes a deep breath. "Okay, the way I see it it's kind of like the judge set up right? The only people that have any say in Michael are you, me and Jason. Edward doesn't get a say. If anything happens to me then it's up to you AND Jason. I know that neither of you will cut Bobbie out of Michael's life but even Bobbie doesn't get to have the final say where Michael is concerned-- just you, me and Jason."
"But nothing is going to happen to you." AJ reassures.
"Something ALWAYS happens to me. Please have you ever seen anything be easy? AJ, I almost bled to death when Michael was born, then the depression, then shooting Tony. I have to think about things like that and so do you."
"Okay, so I have to make sure that you are never put in the position where you have to choose."
"So you agree, If it comes down to a choice between Jason and Edward, I'm going to Jason."
"If it comes down to a choice between Jason and Edward-- go to Bobbie!" AJ retorts not even half kidding but he falls silent considering that this is exactly the situation that Edward would set up. Get him out of the picture and then try to pull Carly and Michael into the mansion. Carly having the house or even Bobbie to rely on would slow Edward down maybe half a step. Carly was right; something always happened.
Carly looks at the clock by the stove. "I suppose I should check on Michael. Start getting everything ready for the day." She sighs. "I'm glad that Mama is taking him this morning. I don't think I could keep the tension from affecting him." AJ is left alone with his thoughts as Carly goes upstairs to dress and get Michael ready.
The Penthouse. about 7:30 am.
Jason slides into his suit jacket. He was supposed to meet the attorney before court at 8:15. Was it court if it was an inchambers hearing? There is a brief knock on the door before Sonny enters from his penthouse across the hall. Jason doesn't hear the knock but instead is staring out the window, his arms crossed before him lost in his thoughts.
"Are you ready?" Sonny asks concerned for his best friend.
"What?" Jason brings himself back mentally to the penthouse. "Yeah, I guess. The attorney is supposed to meet us there."
"You look sharp."
"Carly picked it out. It's one of the suits we bought when I was trying to pull the territory together." Jason replies absently. "Carly really let Brenda have it that day. Brenda ran into us at the store; she was ticked at me and being witchy because you were gone. I told Carly to let it go that it didn't matter but she wasn't having it."
"That must have been a sight." Sonny laughs. "Brenda could hold her own when it came down to a cat fight."
"Yeah.Carly can too." Jason shakes his head. "And when it came to someone mouthing off to me she was always in the fray. Did I ever tell you about the time that she called the dock strike and shut down Port Charles?"
An hour later in the corridor outside the Judge's chambers. Sonny and Jason are at one end and AJ and Carly are at the other. The two attorneys meet in the middle to finish the negotiation. There is just a brief conference before the attorneys break to return to their respective clients. Jason doesn't take his eyes off Carly dressed in a plain dress with a jacket over it. Carly avoids Jason's gaze feeling his eyes on her.
"Mr Morgan signed off on the agreement." AJ's attorney confirms. "You could have won without it. You gave up too much." The attorney complains.
"You shut the hell up!" Carly snarls.
Jason comes off the wall he is leaning on. Watching Carly even closer, he murmurs to Sonny with a worried tone, "Carly's losing it." He takes a half step toward Carly only to see AJ put a restraining hand on her arm.
"Carly..." AJ says low and calm.
Carly takes a shuddering breath but continues in a gritted tone giving the attorney the evil eye. "You're getting paid and your client is satisfied with the agreement. Your opinion isn't wanted and wasn't asked for. Decisions regarding MY son will be made by his PARENTS not some glory hound looking for headlines and a padded bill."
"Ms Benson, it is Benson this week, isn't it?..." The attorney begins patronizingly.
"Excuse me, Could you see if the Judge has arrived yet?" AJ interrupts smoothly seeing bloodshed in the attorney's immediate future. After the attorney leaves, AJ faces Carly putting a hand to her face cupping it reassuringly as he gazes directly into her eyes. "Are you okay?"
"I don't like him." Carly mutters looking away.
"You don't have to like him. I don't care if you kick his ass later, but remember he is an attorney; he'll probably sue you." AJ grins. Then sliding his hands down her arms rubs them soothingly. Jason glares at AJ from across the corridor. Why did he constantly have his hands on Carly?
Carly closes her eyes, then sagging against the wall, laughs. "Okay, I'm okay now." Carly exhales and slowly opens her eyes looking directly into AJ's. "Thanks, I needed that. Just promise me that I'll be the one to fire him."
"You got it." AJ smiles encouragingly. "You get to hire the next attorney."
Carly rolls her eyes. "Great. Just swear to me we won't have to update wills as often as Jason does. I swear sometimes it was the only way I knew that things were really bad... Jason would make another will. I guess I started it since I was the one that made it so he could make medical arrangements for me when I was pregnant."
"How many wills could Jason have made? Michael is only a little over a year old." AJ asks curiously.
"I don't know... at least four." Carly shrugs; AJ looks shocked. "Hey half of those were my fault. He'd write one 'cause I wasn't there...," Carly starts waving her hand to and fro for emphasis. "...then 'cause I was, then I wasn't again. He was always making sure that someone would be there to take care of Michael. Which is something that I have to be thinking about now... you too." Carly grimaces. "I guess this means that we can't fire him... yet." Carly falls silent as the lawyer approaches again.
"The Judge is just about ready according to his clerk." The lawyer says to AJ, ignoring Carly. Just then the door to the Judges chambers open and the judge himself steps out into the hallway.
Looking disgruntled at the crowd in his hallway he makes an announcement to the hall at large. "So did you come to an agreement? Or is this just to set another court date?"
"There is a tentative agreement, Your Honor." Jason's attorney states firmly.
"Fine, I want Morgan, Benson and Quartermaine in my chambers now. The rest of you can wait out here." AJ's attorney makes a motion as if to protest but quickly subsides at the Judge's icy glare. "You got a problem with that?"
"No, Your Honor."
"I didn't think so." The Judge steps back into his chambers. AJ offers Carly his hand which she takes into a death grip as fear overtakes her. Jason shrugs and enters the room behind the judge. The guy could say what he liked. If Carly and Michael weren't happy then he'd handle it. Just like he always had since before Michael was born. The Judge takes a seat behind his desk waving at the silent trio to be seated. AJ sits down between Carly and Jason. The Judge takes a minute to read the agreement before looking up. He'd already reviewed the minutes of the last meeting with Quartermaine and his lawyer. He takes in at a glance Carly's white knuckled grip on AJ's hand and her nervous biting of her lower lip. "Well young lady, Are you packing a gun today? Planning on shooting anyone?"
"No, Sir." Carly shrinks back in her chair.
"But you have before, haven't you? And in a courtroom too." The judge reminds sternly.
"No, Sir, I used a gun someone else brought to the courtroom to shoot Doctor Jones." Carly replies meekly.
The judge looks around to the both AJ and Jason. "What about either of you?" Both men shake their heads. "Okay bailiff. you can go." The armed bailiff shrugs and walks back into the courtroom. "Now I have a case that starts in about 40 minutes so let's get this hammered out. I've already heard what Mr Quartermaine had to say a week ago so lets start with you, Ms. Benson. Were you forced into this agreement in any way?"
"In ANY way, Your Honor?" Carly repeats carefully as AJ winces. "Not really, it came about through a heated discussion that I'm sure that you don't want the details of but I think I protected my son's interests even without a lawyer to advise me."
"No lawyer." The Judge glares at AJ.
"Mine wasn't there either, Sir. Carly and I settled this on our own and faxed it to Jason." AJ fills the judge in both defensive and relieved that Carly hadn't gone into detail.
The judge looks over at Jason who is sitting comfortably in his chair with his legs stretched out before him, bored at the proceedings. "And you, why did you sign off on this?"
"I was told by my legal counsel that it was more than I was likely to get if I was to allow this to go to trial." Jason shrugs.
"Well the three of you appear to be of sound minds, not under the influence of any intoxicants and well represented, although I would have preferred if Ms Benson would have had her own counsel to look over this document. This document seems to represent the best interests of the child in an... unorthodox situation." The judge picks up his pen and with a flourish signs the bottem of the documents.
Carly leans forward to ask the judge now that it appears that the worst is over. "Your Honor, I would prefer that this agreement be sealed somehow. My son, our son, has already been exposed to one kidnapping attempt and both AJ and Jason are high profile members of the community; the press will be all over this and I don't want Michael exposed to that."
"You're not exactly low profile yourself, Ms Benson." The judge reminds. "Agreed. All files to be sealed. Your copies will be sent to your addresses of record which are noted in the document. Now if you'll excuse me I have a court docket to review." The Judges dismisses the trio. Jason rises; AJ assists Carly up as she is still feeling a little threatened by the environment. Carly starts to breath easier once she gets a door between her and the judge. Jason walks over to Sonny and his attorney filling them in.
"That didn't take long." Sonny says questioningly.
"I think he was more interested in whether or not Carly was going to open fire in chambers. Once he verified we were all unarmed things went very quickly." Jason is distracted by the heated conversation that AJ and Carly are having at the other end of the hall. Carly gives AJ a push and he throws up his hands.
"Fine." AJ walks over to where Jason and Sonny are standing. "Jason, can I get a moment... privately?"
Jason walks a few steps away. "What?" He asks his hostility there for all to see as he attempts to intimidate AJ.
AJ clears his throat before continuing with visible reluctance. "Carly has pointed out that Grandfather is going to be coming after me now instead of you. When he does I hope that you'll back us up where Michael is concerned."
"Carly and Michael don't have to worry about Edward-- ever." Jason states flatly.
"Let me make it REALLY clear to you, brother; Michael is OUR responsibility-- yours, mine and Carly's. Carly is MY responsibility. She'll never need your... protection again." AJ walks away without another word. Going over to Carly he helps her on with her coat, and with a hand at the back of her waist; they leave the courthouse together not looking back.