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The Triumph Of AJ Quartermaine
Chapter Eighty
An Addition to the Family
Breakfast at the Happy family. Emily had left at dawn to go over to the Spencer house to get Foster. Nobody over there would miss him and had just arrived back. Michael sits in his high chair. AJ is reading the paper and Carly is immersed in her files. Jordan had snitched one of the sections of the Herald and was checking out his new home town when there is a knock on the door. "It's just me." Emily announces. "But I brought company. Foster this everyone. Everyone-- this is Foster."
"OH my GOD!" Carly exclaims in dismay as Foster smiles at her showing the big teeth that Emily had told AJ and Jordan about. Then she looks closer. "Emily, is he suppose to be frothing at the mouth like that?"
"Carly," Emily rolls her eyes. "That's drool. Dogs drool."
"That's disgusting." Carly grimaces. She rushes to Michael's chair as Foster makes his way over to the chair. She hesitates for a moment and in that moment Michael tips his cereal onto the floor. In a heartbeat it is gone. Foster had done his hoover imitation. He sniffs around Michael for some more.
"DOGGY!" Michael chortles and offers a piece of bacon. Foster gently lips the treat from Michael. Carly and AJ had been holding their breath wondering if Michael was going to lose some fingers.
"I told you he is good with kids. Lulu learned to walk pulling herself up on him." Emily comes up on Foster and pulls a fold of skin away from the dog. "See. Nothing phases him." Foster yawns displaying the teeth and then turning around a few times settles under the table to be right where the handouts were. He keeps a close eye on the short human knowing that his next snack was likely to come from that direction.
"AJ..." Carly is shaking her head in dismay.
"Well Michael seems to like him." AJ is also hesitant.
"But he drools." Carly shudders.
"Piece of cake." Emily shrugs. She starts tossing Carly's kitchen and finds what she is looking for-- one of Michael's bibs. She ties it around Foster's neck. "See problem solved. Isn't that right, Foster baby." Emily coos. "Now you look like one of the St Bernards at the Westminster."
"Now he looks like a wimp. What respectable dog wants to be wearing a teletubbies bib? Couldn't you have at least found a GI Joe, Godzilla or something?" Jordan says for the first time allowing everyone to get their opinions in first. "I'm going to check the perimeter."
"I know that *I* may seem like a wimp but could you call it going for a walk rather than checking the perimeter?" Carly winces at the armed camp type comments. Jordan shrugs and finishing his coffee sets it in the sink. As he hits the back door he whistles, Foster rises and looking back reluctantly at Michael jogs out the back door. Lifting his leg on every bush and tree, Foster can barely keep up with Jordan until Jordan gets to within a short span of the front gates. Then the short stubby hairs on the back of his neck go up and a deep growl rolls from his bared teeth.
"Yep. That's the bad guys." Jordan announces loud enough for the press to hear. "Tell you what, dog, there's a sirloin in your future if you bring me the balls of any one of those yahoos that come on this side of the fence. And if it happens to be one of the broads... I'll put a bounty on their sheshe Eyetalian shoes." Jordan starts walking away having made his point but Foster hasn't made his. Foster sits down in the middle of the drive and just stares at the press on the other side of the gate. Ribbons of drool start to extend down his chest to the silly bib that he wears. It had been awhile since he had steak. Jordan watches the dog and then watches the faces of the camera men. Shaking his head, he goes on with his perimeter check.
Judge's chambers.
Judge Porter had arrived early as is his habit. Get all his paperwork done early and then he can just focus on the cases on the docket when they came up. His secretary had left a batch of invitations for him. Invitations to speak at various conventions. ACLU, envionmental groups, a variety of universities-- all wanting him to speak. The curse of loving what he does was that he was good at it. He'd been on law review back when he was dating Cookie, and nothing had changed in that regard. He had opinions, sometimes unpopular ones, but always well thought out. Even the people that hated his guts, invited him to speak at their gatherings. For them, he was the ultimate devils' advocate if they couldn't make him cry uncle then they knew they were doomed to an uphill battle. He knew that he was on the short list for a federal judgeship. It was the next step in his career but he had to wonder if he really wanted to go there-- maybe after Rita was out of school. Judge looks up at the sound of his door clicking open.
"Hey DAD. How's it going?" Johnny growls from the doorway.
"How long have you known?" JD replies studying the man before him.
"Well I'd have to be an idiot to not know. Especially once I hit this town. I just never put the name with face until after the party when Ma was so insistent on my staying away from you. Then I started to do my research, filling in the details."
"Yeah, I found out yesterday. JohnDavid Porter Cook" JD announces. "I didn't know. I asked your mother last night why she didn't tell me. She still hasn't told me; she dodged the question last night. I found out from the PI's report that was waiting for me when I got home. I hired him after the first time I saw your mother again at Ms Benson's."
"Call her Carly. It cuts down on the confusion." Johnny suggests. "What's the name of the PI?"
Judge studies the man before him and decides to not tell. "Someone I know and trust. Not someone that you need to be concerned with."
"I decide what concerns me and anything to do with my mother concerns me." Johnny says flatly. "I'll find out and I'll decide if he can be trusted. And if he can't be then he won't be a problem."
Judge winces. "You can't go around saying things like that."
"It's a little late for the fatherly advice, DAD."
"Then consider it lawyerly advice. Your mother says that you are a good cook, have your own place. Why are you still working for Morgan and Corinthos?" Judge asks curiously.
"It's a good job and well paying." Johnny shrugs. "There seems to be an organized crime problem in this town. I finally figured out that profits at the restaurant would go up if I wasn't on site every day."
"An organized crime problem." Judge says softly. "I guess that's one way of putting it. Guess we both have an organized crime problem just different ways of dealing with it. I haven't finished trying to lick them."
"What is it that they call 'em-- La familia? When your mother is in the joint and your father is...." Johnny shrugs. "You take your family where you get them."
Judge recoils as if slapped. "Cookie said that you stayed with your grandparents?"
"The curse of a honest mother. Did you really think that I wanted to stay with grandparents that kicked their 16 year old daughter out when they found out she was pregnant? That only showed up at the jail because they didn't want it known that their grandson was in foster care? Who did nothing when Marshall Lee was kicking the crap out of mom? I'm not saying that they didn't love me but back then I really wasn't interested in what my grandparents had to say about anything." Johnny admits.
Judge pales and leans back in his chair. "What did you say?" He whispers. "No, it's impossible, your mother would never put up with that."
"She didn't." Johnny states flatly.
"Why didn't she just leave him?" Judge snarls. "Damnit I know how good she is at disappearing. I LOOKED FOR HER."
"Yeah, well guess those southern boys are better trackers. Marshall Lee had Mama on the brain long before they got married. Where she went, he followed. She didn't marry him until '81; he must have caught her at a weak moment."
"The year my daughter, Vicki, was born." Judge murmurs.
"She didn't try to stick it out. First time he hit her she was out of there... and he was right after her. She'd come home after a shift at whatever restaurant she was working at and he'd be waiting just like he lived there. Taking over the remote control , demanding a beer and wondering where dinner was. Nothin' she said ever impacted. Until the time when he started beating her in her own kitchen and she took a filet knife to him. Like you say, Mom isn't one to put up with any nonsense." Johnny recitation is flat and controlled. "Mom's one phone call was to her parents to come and get me."
"Why didn't she call me?" JD is bewildered. "That's the one thing that she said last night. She knew where I was. I wasn't the one that was hiding."
"And what were you doing in 85? If I remember my files right getting appointed to the bench, doing the society thing with your oh so perfect wife and daughter. Having a ex come out of the woodwork, especially one that was jail bait when you were knocking boots, with a 12 year old son might have put a cramp in your political career, JUDGE." Johnny snears. "It wasn't your problem. It didn't concern you."
"You know better than that." JD says harshly. "I didn't get a vote. I never turned my back on your mother. I looked for her. She made the decision for both of us. And she's still trying. She told me last night that we didn't fit and that she wasn't going to see me again."
"You're still a judge; I'm still a bodyguard for people that get described using a lot of *alledges*; and Mama is still a knife welding trouble magnet. Only now that she's working for the Quartermaines it's considered *colorful and tempermental*. You don't fit. Stay away from my mother. She doesn't tolerate stress well." Johnny doesn't bother with a goodbye before walking out the door brushing by a young girl as he leaves.
"Here are your coffee and newspapers, Dad. Who was that man? I've seen him before at the riding academy. He hangs out sometimes with Lucas's sister, Carly. I told you about Carly-- she's the one that helps me with my jumping."
"That's your brother, Rita." Judge drops his bomb and then looks down at his watch. "And you're going to be late for school."
"My brother?" Rita is flabbergasted but catches her father's closed expression. He isn't going to say anymore not right now. "Right. I'll see you tonight, Dad." Rita races out of the courthouse seeing a glimpse of Johnny as he exits the building. She keeps her distance but follows him almost getting caught a few times. She sees him enter the Morgan Corinthos warehouse and makes a note of the address. She hurries on to school but stops half way there. "Screw it. A new brother is worth taking the ditch." She makes her way back to the warehouse.