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The Triumph Of AJ Quartermaine
Chapter Thirty Seven
Blowing off Steam
The brownstone after the court hearing. Carly is exhausted. AJ has to go to work soon to allay Edward's suspicions. Carly rings the bell briefly then waits for Bobbie to come to the door.
"You okay?" AJ asks concerned.
"Yeah, I'm just tired. I haven't been to bed yet. I just know what Bobbie is going to say when I tell her I'm going home to take a nap."
"I wish I could head back to the house too." AJ commiserates. "Nothing else today is going to top this morning."
"You need to find out if Edward knows about the court hearing or the results. I understand. I'm just going to head back to the house and lock the gates and the world can just go to hell for about 4 hours." Carly runs her hands through her hair dragging the pins that had been holding it up out and putting them in her pocket. "Where is Bobbie? I just want to get Michael and get out of here." Carly presses on the doorbell again. Then checking the door finds it unlocked. She looks at AJ questioningly before entering the brownstone and peeking around calling out to Bobbie.
"Carly! How did it go?" Bobbie comes out of the kitchen.
"Didn't you hear us; we rang the front bell?"
Bobbie ignores the question. "What happened in court?"
"Jason agreed and the Judge signed off on it." AJ informs Bobbie already suspecting that something is up. Just then Jerry and Lucas come into the room bearing cake and sparkling cider.
"Welcome to the Happy Family House warming!" Jerry shouts up the din of Lucas playing Happy Days Are Here Again on a kazoo. Jerry sets down the refreshments and goes over to Carly to give her a hug then whispers in her ear. "I know I'm going to regret getting the kid the noise maker but it was that or drums. Congratulations." Jerry takes a step back and then says in a louder voice. "You look like Hell."
"JERRY!" Bobbie is shocked by Jerry's blunt comment.
"Well she does! Did you sleep at all last night?" Jerry inquires.
AJ replies rubbing the back of his neck. "Neither of us got much sleep last night. Carly just gave up trying before I did."
"When I walked out of the courthouse it was a huge relief but all of a sudden I was just ready to drop. I'm amazed I didn't fall asleep in the car." Carly shakes her head. "I'm just going to have AJ drop me off at the house and then I'm going to sleep until I wake up."
"Not with Michael around you're not. Carly, he just went down for his morning nap. He's going to be wide awake and ready to roll in just a little bit." Bobbie shakes her head. "Honey, why dont you just crash here for a few hours. I requested the day off. Lucas is GOING to school I was just going to write him an excuse for this morning so he could be part of the celebration."
"NO... I want to stay home with Michael. I can keep him busy so Carly can take a nap." Both Carly and Bobbie look at Lucas like he has grown another head. "He's MY nephew." Lucas protests already sensing that he is losing this battle... FAST.
"Come on, Kid." Jerry sets the limits. "A sliver of cake and a glass of cider then off to the salt mines for you. I'll drive you myself."
"Don't feel bad, Lucas. I'm going to have to go to work today too." AJ commiserates. "But maybe everyone will be ready to party by the time we get back."
Lucas looks ready to protest then sees his mother's set face and pouts. Jerry goes over to the sparkling cider and popping the cork pours a glass for everyone. Offering his glass up in a toast he says... "To everyone getting what they want... in time." After everyone sips, Jerry asks, "Who is for cake?" Carly and AJ have a seat on the couch. Bobbie starts cutting slices and Lucas delivers them saving the last for his own, dragging the time out as much as possible. Jerry observes that Carly is getting quiet and quieter as the small gathering drags on. "Lucas, get your books so I can drop you off on the way to work."
"Carly, I need to get going to. Ned is going to be a pain enough as is." AJ rises from next to Carly. "Bobbie, thank you for this; I know that you didn't have to." AJ shrugs into his winter coat and with a quick squeeze of Carly's shoulder he prepares to leave.
"Honey, you can crash here until you are feeling better. AJ, call here before you leave the mansion." Bobbie takes control of the situation.
"I'm sorry to be such a party pooper, it's not my style really." Carly says her head drooping back against the back of the couch. AJ leaves nodding at Bobbie's directive.
"Yeah, and if we were having this little shindig at 3am you'd be raring to go but it's already been a stressful morning for you." Bobbie says sympathetically but doesn't add more until Jerry leaves with Lucas. "Tony has set a court date for visitation with Lucas. I'm already dreading it. Jerry has been so good about keeping Lucas' spirits up but he has to be feeling the strain as well-- both of them."
Carly opens her eyes at Bobbie's admission. "I'll do the same for you, Mama. If you want Lucas to stay with me at the house until after the court hearing. Take him to school, pick him up whatever you need."
"I might take you up on that. Even if it does irritate Tony." Bobbie smirks. "Come on. You're dead on your feet. I think that you left some sweats here if you want to change into something for your nap."
Carly drags herself to her feet following Bobbie to her old room. "I can't believe that you are being so nice about this. I thought sure you'd think I'm an awful mother for wanting a nap."
"Well, since I'm the one that let Lucas stay home today; I'm really in no position to talk. But if it makes you feel better we can schedule a fight for next week?"
"I'll look forward to it." Carly laughs.
A limo slows to a stop outside of a gated house. There is no movement within or sign of cars. "So that's it. The house that AJ bought Carly." Sonny comments. "It doesn't look like anyone is home."
"Probably getting Michael." Jason taps on the glass divider to get Johnny's attention. "Take us to Jakes."
"Jakes? Jason, it'll be closed." Sonny reminds him.
"Good, I don't want company. Jake won't mind if we shoot a few games of pool and break open her stash." Jason replies. Sonny shrugs waiting for Jason to open up about what had happened this morning. If only the damn judge hadn't closed the hearing.
Soon Johnny is pulling into the rutted parking lot of Jakes. Jason pulls out the key that he kept from when he lived above the bar and lets himself in. Going behind the bar with familiar ease, Jason turns on the lights and grabs a cold beer. He offers one to Sonny who declines with a shake of the head. "Too early for me, Man."
"Whatever." Jason goes over to the pool table and racks the balls. Sonny goes over to the juke box and drops some quarters in making sure that none of his selections are about kids, parents or just country music in general. He is distracted from his selections when Jason calls him over to break.
"You break." Jason hands Sonny a cue.
"Planning on running the table as soon as I miss a shot?" Sonny quips feeling the tension in the room. "Jason, why don't you just talk to me?" Sonny makes a clean break dropping a ball in the process. He lines up his next shot.
Jason stares at his beer. "Carly stayed upstairs for awhile. It was after Luke found out about her and Dr Jones. Dr Jones tracked her down-- moved her into an apartment. She was living there when Dorman drugged you, tried to make you look like a junkie. You were in the hospital; Robin was at Yale. Carly had no clue about you, what you were like, except what she read in the papers and that you are important to me. All she knew was that I was upset. We hadn't had sex in months. We didn't become friends until after we stopped having sex but she was always there for me." Jason drains his beer and gets another.
"Explain this friendship thing." Sonny prompts. "I mean you listen to anything anybody else has to say about Carly... including you sometimes calling her nuts, why would you want to be friends with her? Didn't she threaten to tell Robin about you two?"
"Yeah, but I told Robin first. Carly was ticked." Jason laughs at the memory. "She couldn't believe that I'd tell. We didn't hang out much together after that until she got jumped by two guys in an alley."
"What?" Sonny looks up abruptly from his shot.
"Yeah, they weren't hearing her say no. I happened to be passing by and reinforced it for her. She kicked the crap out of one guy. I would have killed the other one if she hadn't pulled me away. She wondered if she was sending out some kind of signals that it was okay to treat her like that-- almost getting raped in that alley behind a bar." Jason thinks back to what he told her. "I told wearing a bra might be a step in the right direction." Jason shrugs. "She always did after that as far as I know. Anyway, we ended up back at her apartment. Dr Jones wasn't there, and she was afraid of being alone. She really thought that she was in love with Dr Jones. She knew I was in love with Robin. We started hanging out again. Robin was at Yale. Jones would leave her alone in the apartment." Jason's brow furrows. "For a while it seemed like she was afraid to leave. You know Carly can't drive, right?"
"She's taking lessons now with Emily." Sonny doesn't mention AJ on purpose.
"Right, well I'd bring her groceries-- stuff like that. We'd get together have a beer, maybe some popcorn, talk about the bad old days. He treated her like dirt but she wouldn't hear it. They fought all the time. When they'd have a fight she'd come to me; we'd talk but she always went back to him. It was only after she found out that he was planning on taking the baby from her that it was over." Jason finishes his second beer.
"How did she hook up with AJ?" Sonny asks.
"Same old story. She and Dr Jones got in a fight; Carly came here looking for me. This time though AJ found her first. He was drunk; she was drunk. Michael was conceived in my old room upstairs. AJ didn't remember what happened but he remembered Carly. He started buddying up to her they were both working at the GH gym. He moved in across the hall from her and Dr Jones. Eventually he figured out that he could have been the sperm donor of her baby. He started harassing her. I can't believe I helped that little prick."
"Helped how?"
"Robin told me I should be nice to the Quartermaines-- that I owed it to Jason Quartermaine since he had given me so much." Jason rolls his eyes. "AJ came to me wanting fake ID. He was making Carly get an ultrasound under the fake name to try to figure out if it was his kid. I didn't find out any of this until after Carly moved in. Between AJ and Dr Jones, Carly was having a tough time keeping her stories straight."
Sonny gives up the pretense of playing pool and instead just leans against the edge of the table. "See this is the part I don't understand. You always seemed to hate liars, hypocrites. You said that they made your head hurt. Why is it that you are so calm about Carly's lies?"
"I don't know." Jason laughs. "She is just so darn good at it. I can tell when Carly is lying. But no one else can until the lie blows up in her face and even then the mark would rather believe the lie when the truth finally comes out. Some people like watching TV or reading a story; I like Carly. Now after what-- three years..." Jason shrugs, "...whenever Carly opens her mouth everyone assumes she is lying. She can cause as many problems NOW telling the truth but telling it in the way that only she can."
The mansion. AJ strides in the front door briefcase in hand. Walking into the front room he ignores all comments from Edward and Ned until he can pour a cup of coffee and take his first sip. The energy boost might be purely placebo as the caffeine hadn't had time to kick in yet but he feels ready to take on the family.
"Where have you been?" Edward grumbles from his chair crumpling the business section of the newpaper into his lap. "The board meeting is tomorrow and you're off lolligagging instead of taking care of business..."
"I was out getting custody of my son-- priorities, Grandfather." AJ interrupts Edward's rant. "I had court this morning."
"Well where is he, where is my great grandson?"
"MICHAEL's with his mother. She'll be bringing him to the boardmeeting tomorrow." AJ reminds not so subtly
"You are using that child, Jason's child, to get ahead in business-- you are pond scum, junyur." Ned snears.
"Really Ned? I'm providing a home for my son and his mother where I can be with them at least five days a week. I tuck my son in at night. How about you? When was the last time you saw Brooke?" AJ pulls back, fighting with Ned was exactly what he didn't want this morning. "Now Grandfather, was there anything on the table that needed to get done before tomorrow's board meeting? If not, there are some phone calls I could be making. I want to have the latest numbers on the docks project for tomorrow. I have another contract coming up that I need to check on-- wouldn't want another Acme sprockets, right Ned? By the way, Ned," AJ takes on a mischievious tone. "How are things going in Jakarta?"
"Jakarta? What about Jakarta?" Ned's eyes narrow. The loser was up to something.
"No particular reason," AJ says with just enough smugness in his tone. "If you don't have anything; I'm going to check in with Grandmother and then make my calls. See you all tomorrow." AJ leaves before either man can reply.
"He's up to something." Ned glares at Edward.
"Yes, Your job-- probably tomorrow night. Better count your votes, boy. REGINALD!!!!"
Reg comes in with a fresh pot of coffee and a carafe of orange juice. "Yes, Mr Q?"
"Get the nursery ready; my great-grandson is coming home tomorrow."