 |
||
The Triumph Of AJ Quartermaine
Chapter Eighty Seven
Capes of Cod, Hope and Fear
COD--
Carly walks through the house to the French doors at the back and out to the deck. She takes a deep breath of the crisp sea air and closes her eyes stretching her hands over head the tension drains from her body. "AJ, this was a good idea. A very good idea." Carly leans up against the railing of the deck listening to the sound of the ocean waves pounding the shore.
AJ drops the bags in the living room and follows Carly out to the deck. He stands next to her staring out to the dark waters. "Guess I didn't even have to get a cottage. You would have been happy sleeping on the beach."
"Cottage." Carly laughs. "Yeah right. And I'll be happy to have a bed, thank you very much. Sand can be so... chafing." Carly turns so she is looking at AJ. "So tell me about the guy that owns this place? You said he was an old drinking buddy."
"Yeah, from school. He's in the House of Representatives now. The Quartermaines go into business; his family goes into politics. The stuff I know about that guy could get him booted out of office."
Carly sniffs. "Hmm is that blackmail I smell?"
"Nah. He's got just as much on me." AJ admits. "You want to check the rest of the place out before your mom and Jerry arrive for dinner?"
Carly gets a mischievous glint. "How much time have we got?" She raises her brows suggestively.
"We can leave the front door unlocked." AJ grins. Carly looks up at the house and then sighs.
"I hate to be a tease, okay-- so I don't hate being a tease most of the time, but we do have to get this dinner thing going or Mama and Jerry are going to be here until 2am eating." AJ reluctantly agrees and they go back inside the house. Carly takes the bags upstairs while AJ gets the rest of the groceries from the car. Meeting AJ in the kitchen, she starts to put away the fresh groceries into the staple-stocked kitchen.
"Hello?!"
"Mama, We're in here!" Carly calls out. Lucas is the first to find the kitchen tailed by Bobbie and Jerry. "I was just about to go out and get the coals started...."
Jerry gets a snit look on his face. "I don't think so."
"Excuse me?" Carly raises a brow.
"The men will handle the barbie, thank you very much." Jerry states flatly walking out onto the back deck. AJ and Lucas look at each other and then follow Jerry out to the back deck.
"What was that all about?" Carly asks Bobbie bewildered.
"Baby, I think that you just insulted poor Jerry." Bobbie laughs.
"Is this one of those Manly Men things?" Carly figures out. "Like model trains?"
"Oh yeah." Bobbie and Carly look out the kitchen window to where Jerry is holding class on the fine art of charcoal stacking and lighting to an amused AJ and fascinated Lucas. Carly and Bobbie share a secret grin and start getting the rest of the meal prepared. Carly prepares a quick marinade and slides the steaks into it. She frowns knowing that it would have been better if the meats could have marinated longer than it would take for Jerry to get the coals ready to go but shrugs that it will just have to do. Bobbie brews some ice tea and adding ice to glasses takes it out on the men on the back deck. Now that the coals are started they are all kicked back and enjoying the early evening air. Carly dumps a couple of deli containers into serving dishes and puts them in the fridge until dinner is ready. Then she grabs a tall glass of ice tea and goes out on the deck too.
"Didn't mean to tread on your turf, Jerry." Carly apologizes with a grin. "But you have to remember I was raised by a single mom. I even know how to take out the trash."
"This and surfing are the real Australian national pastimes." Jerry fusses with the coals.
"Hmm." Carly agrees widening her eyes and wrinkling her nose. "You aren't going to get insulted again by the fact that you didn't kill and clean what we're eating tonight though?" Bobbie chokes on her tea and Lucas starts thumping her on the back enthusiastically.
"Don't start with me, little girl." Jerry grins back at Carly. The teasing goes back and forth until Jerry declares that the coals are ready. Carly commanders Lucas to help her and going back into the kitchen prepares a platter with the marinated meats and a side dish of marinade to basted the steaks with as they are cooking. Lucas carries the platter out carefully to the waiting Jerry and acts as the prep cook handing Jerry things as he requests them.
"You taking notes?" Carly sits down next to AJ.
"I should be. This is like nothing I've ever seen before." AJ is secretly fascinated but putting up a good cover.
"You had a deprived childhood." Carly commiserates softly. "That whole servant thing made you miss out on all the fun. I should have remembered. Carly's Dad was the same way; Saturday barbeques were his element. I can't picture Alan doing anything like this."
"Me neither." AJ agrees.
"And I can't picture Jason doing anything like this either." Carly admits. "So you're going to have to learn so you can teach Michael; it wouldn't be the same if I did." After dropping that little bombshell, Carly and Bobbie get up and gather all the things together to set up the meal on the back deck. With perfect timing as the last dish is slid onto the table, Jerry announces that the steaks are done.
As everyone eyes the full plates in front of them and prepare to dig in, AJ clears his throat and raises his glass. "To the Spencer women, their ability to land on their feet, the way that they can make any place a home."
"Here, here." Agrees Jerry as he takes Bobbie's hand in his own before adding to AJ's toast. "Here is to their generosity of spirit and umm... form." Jerry grows serious. "And their ability to make the men in their lives the best they can be and long for things they thought they never had a shot at."
HOPE---
Luke's back room. JD racks the billiard balls, but his focus is on the door. Cookie might have tried to blow him off after their last meeting but Rita had brought them back together. She'd finally agreed to meet him after she's made sure that the Quartermaines were set for the evening. Vicki was home for the weekend from college to do her laundry and was staying with the Very grounded Rita. Rita had not told Vicki about her big brother, Johnny, yet but it was only a matter of time. Her very smugness was setting off Vicki's sisterly radar. It had given him the perfect opportunity and excuse to meet with Cookie. She had to know that sooner or later Vicki was going to turn up on her doorstep or on Johnny's. The table is ready and still Cookie isn't here. JD goes over to the jukebox and smiles as he sees a familiar song. Something that brought back memories-- good ones. Dropping in a quarter, he picks the song that fills the back room.
As you brush your shoes, you stand before your mirror
And you comb your hair, grab your coat and hat
And you walk the streets trying to remember, ee-yea
All those wild nights breeze through your mind
And every thing looks so complete
When you're walking down on the streets
And the wind, it catches your feet
Sets you flying, crying
Cook opens the door to the back room. Memories flood her. This had been their song. The first one they danced to at her parent's bar. JD had been standing in the same spot. Next to the jukebox, staring off, thinking of what-- goodness knows. JD had been a conservative dresser even back then. It fit with his image of the serious law student. Course it didn't do any harm when he was suckering people into playing pool with him. Damn, the fashions had been horrid back then: the wide ties, the wide lapels, the wide legged slacks. Shiny polyester shirts with buttons undone to reveal the gold chains and hairy chests. Somehow JD had avoided being a fashion victim. Her parents had loved him, "so clean cut, such a nice boy." Well they'd loved him alright --right up until he'd knocked up their sixteen year old daughter.
Ooh ooh-ooh wee, wild night, is calling
Ooh ooh-ooh wee, wild night, is calling
All the girls walk by, dressed up for each other
And the boys, do the boogie-woogie
On the corner of the stree-ee-eet
JD feels Cook's eyes on him and walks over to her. He grins at her, a boyish grin that melts her heart. "How does he do this to me every time?" She thinks to herself. JD holds out his hand. Cook takes his hand and follows him on to the dance floor the size of a postage stamp but since they're the only ones there-- who cares? The years melt away as they dance, a little closer this time. You'd expect some awkwardness, so many things had gone wrong over the years, so many things under and even OVER the bridge but this had been the essence of their beginning: a man, a woman, a bar and a song.
And the people passing by, just stare with wild wonder, yea
And inside the juke box roars just like thunder
And every thing looks so complete
When you're walking down on the streets
And the wind, it catches your feet
Sets you flying, crying
Wi-i-i-ild night, is calling
The wi-i-ild night a-is calling
C'mon out and dance, c'mon out and dance
C'mon out and make romance, c'mon out and dance
C'mon out and dance, c'mon out and make romance
Ooh ooh-ooh the wild night, is calling
As the song fades away and the next song comes on, JD and Cookie stare at each other on the middle of the floor. JD finally breaks the silence. "I've missed you."
FEAR
A ceramic vase hits the wall and shatters into a hundred pieces the water soaking the carpet and the flowers strewn and bruised on the floor. A shrill scream fills the room as Katherine Bell tears at her hair. "This can't be happening." She protests to the empty suite. The whole day she'd been playing catch up. There had been no warning prior to the Herald running their story about the Possibility of tainted water at the spa. The lobby of the Port Charles Hotel was filling with reporters and the concierge was holding them at bay with the threat of arrest but it hadn't stopped one from getting up to her suite only moments ago. She'd opened the door expecting room service and instead been greeted by lights, camera and a microphone in her face.
The phone had been ringing off the hook until she had called down to the front desk and put a Do Not Disturb order on her room. She'd already been in touch with the corporate lawyers who were popping Rolaids by the hand full. "DAMN, DAMN, DAMN-- why didn't I have the water tested before I moved the spa from the hotel?" They'd already given her the worst case scenario-- Class action lawsuits, exposure to carcinogens. It wouldn't matter if nobody actually got cancer if the water was bad; they would try to prove that she had been negligent by not having the water tested. Sure, she could turn around and sue the people in the property above her but the lawyers had already said it would be a dry hole. The people were broke. All they had were they're pensions and the property. And the PR person in her knew that the press would be all over her if she tried--suing two little old people wasn't going to make her any friends. "I'M the victim here!" Katherine paces the room. There is a knock on the door. "GO AWAY!" Katherine yells at the end of her rope.
Nik uses his key to open the door. "Katherine."
"Oh God, Nikolas." Katherine breaks down into sobs, throwing herself into her young lover's arms. "What am I going to do?" Nik holds Katherine until she regains her control and then steps away.
"I don't know, Katherine." Nik admits.
"Why does this feel like a set up?" Katherine asks finally beginning to think. Her face is splotchy and makeup smeared as she wipes away tears from her red and swollen eyes. "Do you think that Stefan...?"
"Setting you up to get slammed in the press-- sure." Nik admits reluctantly. "It's not the first time he's humiliated you in public and he is not happy about the two of us. But I don't think so, my father has other things on his mind right now. And he would never have anything to do with drugs."
"Who, who could it be?" Katherine starts pacing again.
"What about Helena? It would force you to deal with her."
"Nikolas, when will you understand? Helena is my friend. She saved my life."
"And now she owns you."
Katherine's eyes fill again. "I can't take this from you right now. I know you think that Helena is just using me to get to you."
"Yeah, and it's not a real healthy place to be, Katherine. It puts you in the line of fire."
"Helena would never hurt me."
"You and I are not going to agree on this-- so lets drop it. Is there anything that I can do?"
"You did so much already dealing with the press this afternoon. Can you stay? I really don't want to be alone tonight." Katherine mewls patting Nik on his chest.
"I don't think that's a good idea." Nikolas winces at the thought. "I had a tough time getting in here past the press. If I stay, the press will be on something a lot hotter than water. You and I both know that anyone, hell everyone, in the public relations department could have a solid case for sexual discrimination if our affair became public knowledge. Everyone in the department has more education, experience and training than I do-- including the intern. The spa is in trouble; if we go public this is going to take it right to Deception. I think that we need to stop seeing each other for awhile, Katherine." Nik withdraws from Katherine and moves to the door. "I'll see you Monday at the office."
As the door shuts behind him, another vase hits-- the door this time. Katherine climbs onto the bed and clutching her pillow to her, bites her lip. She was all alone. But she always had been-- alone.
music credit: Van morrison Wild Night remake by John Mellencamp