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The Triumph Of AJ Quartermaine
Chapter Eighty Nine
Confessions.
From her second floor bedroom window nook, Rita who is still SO grounded, looks out over the backyard. Her book lies unread in her lap. Sighing and bored to tears, Rita contemplates going out the window. It wouldn't be hard and it wouldn't be the first time. The tree had finally gotten big enough when she was ten. It had been one of those times when Viki was being a bossy butt and she'd had to get away. Her father had known just where to find her though. He had like a mind reader thing going. Rita sighs again. He'd catch her in nothing flat and double the time on punishment. It was the same way he was in court-- cross his order and he doubled the consequences each time. The only thing to do was either make an official appeal or hope for time off for good behavior.
She figured she had grounds for appeal based on the cruel and unusual punishment that Johnny's mother had dished out to her. She'd scrubbed pots and pans, garbage cans, cleaned out a really disgusting fat trap on the grill and peeled more onions than the restaurant could have used in a month. She sniffs her hands. They still reek of onion. Okay, so she'd made fifteen dollars in tips just clearing the tables, 'cause the waitress had pushed some her way but there are rules against child labor! At least Mrs Cook had only brandished that butcher knife in the chef's direction. But watching her in action there was no way that Rita was going to tell her no, or try to talk her way out of it. How did Johnny turn out so... normal? Rita looks back out the window seeing some movement out of the corner of her eye. She sees it's Johnny walking stealthly from the back yard to her father's study doors. "Oh Boy, This is going to be good." Rita murmurs. She tosses the book onto the nook bench and in her stocking feet sneaks downstairs.
Inside the study, JD pulls his hand out of his top right hand drawer and shuts it sharply when he sees who is coming in the back door. "You know it would be safer if you just called to say you were coming by."
Johnny glances at where JD's hand had been. "Don't worry, Ma invested in a bullet proof vest the first Christmas after I started working for Mr Corinthos. I asked you to stay away from my mother."
"It's not going to happen." JD says flatly looking his son over. The son that he'd had nothing to do in raising. "It's a matter of time now before it all comes out. I had to warn Cookie about my daughter."
"She's already met with Rita. I think that they bonded." Johnny quips. (Rita snorts then covers her mouth.)
"I'm talking about Viki. I love my daughter, but she is a snob. And a snob about all the wrong things."
"Someone that would fit in with Edward Quartermaine."
"Probably. But not the Caroline Benson's or the Margarita Cook's. And I'm not going to have Viki mess things up between me and your mother. Too much time has already been wasted."
"You're living in a dream world, man." Johnny shakes his head. "If you know anything about my mother then you should have figured out by now there is no way she is going to touch you. Not even with a ten foot pole. You think that your daughter is a snob. Well so is Ma."
"I know and that's why I'd just as soon they not start exchanging information and excuses for this not to work."
Johnny runs his hand through his hair. "Get it through your thick skull, man. My mother KILLED a man--gutted him like a fish with a fillet knife; you want to be a federal judge. These things don't go together. Picture it if you will-- you two at some hooty tote shindig, maybe with some of your political cronies. The first person that says something my mother thinks is stupid; she is going to let him have it. She won't care if it's the guy pouring the water or the President of the United States." Johnny shudders picturing his mother being hauled from the White House by Marines after her telling the president exactly what she thought of him or his policies. And God forbid if someone tried to bend her over a desk. "And lets pretend that my ma wasn't a total hothead and just go with the facts. You knocked my mother up when she was 4, that's right, FOUR years older than Rita, her criminal record , my criminal record-- nothing as an adult but it's there, your long lost son who has been working for "unsavory characters" since he was 13 years old."
"How exactly did that happen anyway?" JD asks curiously. "It wouldn't have been something that Cookie would have put up with."
"Oh no. And I didn't tell her. The grandparents and I put on a really good show come visiting days. Nobody was going to make it harder on Ma than it already was. Things got a little dicey when I had to come up with a report card to show her and take the ear boxing for the forged C's. And the grandparents felt guilty enough when I told them all I had seen to keep their mouths shut."
"What you had seen? You mean on the streets?"
"Nah, what I'd seen of Marshall Lee doing to my mother. The times I'd seen her call her parents or her brother and seen them hang up on her. The times when I already had my bags packed and hers too 'cause I knew that as soon as Marshall Lee passed out that me and Ma were out of there. The times when she took a smack that was met for me. She'd send me to my room but I was never one to stay there. I saw him. I saw him grab Ma by the hair and swing her around the room by it. I saw her head hit the side of the refridgerator. I saw her reach for that knife and I knew what was going to happen and I didn't stop her. I was a stupid kid. If I knew what they were going to do to her I would have killed him myself."
"What about the police? The courts?" JD asks horrified.
"Well there were a couple of good cops. Ones that got us moved to a shelter and away from Marshall Lee. And there were the ones that sided with the good old boy having to put up with a crazy old lady and her bastard brat. And then walked away leaving Ma to deal with a royally pissed Marshall Lee. Calling the cops was a crap shoot. It was easier to do it ourselves."
"A restraining order." JD tries already knowing the answer.
"Restraining orders only work with law abiding citizens and law abiding citizens don't beat women and children."
"I know." JD mutters. "It's a flaw in the system."
"Ma always seemed to hook up with the rich boys that felt entitled and had parents to buy them out of trouble."
"You better not be including me in that mix." JD snarls finally getting fed up. "I was a scholarship student who was paying for his books by hustling pool."
"Yeah, but evidently you had something that my mother was willing to protect. That she is still trying to protect and you're blowing all of her hard work." Johnny edges right up against the desk across from JD.
"I never asked your mother to keep me from my son or from the love of my life. Because that is what she is, Johnny, the love of my life." (Rita makes a silent wow with her ear pressed against the door.) "I got on with my life because I had to, not because I wanted to be without her. And if losing the federal judgeship is the price of having your mother and YOU in my life well then f*** the judgeship." JD has also risen to his feet and gets right in his son's face.
Rita sneaks away from the door and back up the stairs. "Wow, oh Wow, oh Wow!" Rita thinks from back in all the time that she can remember. Never had her father sworn like that. And never had he not gotten what he wanted. "I'm going to get a new step-mother and she's a nut." Rita shrugs. "But she's a nut that only kills people that mess with her and her kids. Lucas' sister is like that and she's cool. Carly likes Mrs Cook. Daddy loves Mrs Cook, and he always has." Rita talks to herself. "Viki is going to have a cow."
Cape Cod.
Carly takes a deep breath and knows that the time has finally come. She and Bobbie are walking barefoot along the beach. While Jerry and AJ clean up after the lobster dinner that they had earlier. "Mama, when I was in Ferncliffe you were listed as my next of kin. Jason had my medical power of attorney from when Michael was born-- something that I never revoked. But I figure anything that happened there, you had to know about it right?"
"In a perfect world. Yeah, Honey. But I get the feeling that Ferncliffe was not a perfect world-- unless you consider it a really sick MTV version." Bobbie bites her lip. Maybe she didn't want to know. Not something so ugly that even Jerry couldn't handle it.
"So you never approved any... medical procedures on me while I was there." Carly asks softly.
"WHAT?! NO! GOD NO." Bobbie shakes her head emphatically. Bobbie grabs Carly by the arm. "What did those bastards do?"
Carly pulls away from Bobbie and takes off her cardigan. Wincing slightly she takes off the bandage that covers the fan shaped wounds. "I'm thinking a tattoo..." Carly jokes. "a fan maybe or a sea shell." She bites her lip and falls silent.
Bobbie brushes a finger softly over the closing wounds. "Norplants-- three of them." She looks at Carly who looks away. Bobbie grabs Carly by the jaw and forces her to look at her. "And you thought that I did this to you? That I would approve of this?" Bobbie chokes back a sob.
Carly looks away again. "I did a lot of awful things. I broke up your marriage to Tony. I slept with two guys in one night and had no idea who the father of my child was. I abandon Michael when he was born. I didn't tell you I was your daughter forever. Michael got kidnapped while I was watching him. I'm a crappy daughter and a worse mother. Maybe I deserved it."
Bobbie grabs Carly by the arms and jerks her around to face her. "NO. And if you ever say anything so stupid again I swear I'll slap the snot out of you. Damn it, Carly! Think. Before I knew you were my daughter, I knew that you'd slept with my husband. I knew that AJ or Jason could have been the father of the baby but I fought for you. Fought to make sure that you didn't get a hysterectomy after Michael was born and you were still hemoraging. Once I found out you were my daughter, I wouldn't give you any less than I would have that total stranger. We war and we probably always will because you and are too much ALIKE, but I do it to your face. When you mess up I TELL you; I want you to make your own choices not take them away from you. And Jason wouldn't have approved of this either. So get that out of your head too. This was THEM and you're making them pay." Bobbie insists and grabbing Carly to her hugs her for all she's worth. "You didn't deserve this. Nobody does. Jerry is right this is something that a Nazi would have done not an ethical doctor."
"Oh GAWD-- Jerry knows too?" Carly pulls away.
"Yes, he does, Honey. But he didn't tell me. He waited for you tell me. I watched Jerry burn your Ferncliffe file and he didn't tell me what was in it. Only that he was on your side on this." Bobbie rubs Carly's back and reviews what Carly had told her that afternoon. "Wait a minute-- you said that YOU cut yourself."
Carly mutters under her breath. "I cut them out myself. Scared the hell out of AJ when I did it too."
"Oh Caroline." Bobbie shakes her head.
"AJ called Dr Alan and he took out the last one. It was encapsulated which is why it wouldn't come out. He stitched me up. He thinks I need a shrink."
Bobbie shrugs. "You do, in my opinion. And I don't mean for all the crap that has happened before: your relationship with Virginia, me, your issues with men, the PPD with Michael. There are dozens of reason why you should be talking with a shrink. This just adds to the laundry list. Carly, you were assaulted-- not just your body but your head and heart. You need to learn to deal with that and not by cutting on yourself or destroying everyone that ever crossed you."
"Mama, he was a shrink!" Carly protests.
"He was a bastard with a degree. They aren't all like that. It's going to to be really hard, I'm not denying that and you might come across some more rotten eggs but somewhere there is a competent person, someone that you can trust, someone worthy of your trust, that can help you sort out some of this so that you can kiss it off and put it behind you."
Carly laughs bitterly. "You are such a pollyanna sometimes."
"Luke says the same thing." Bobbie admits. She sits down in the sand and looks out into the surf pulling Carly down beside her. "How did that ever happen? Honey, you aren't the first person to see your mother die. I watched mine die not knowing exactly what that meant. A ruptured appendix I figured out later. Daddy was too drunk to care. And once I was living with Ruby in that whore house, it was home, a better home than I had known before. How sad is that? I had abortions before I had you. And I had abortions after-- there was no way I was going to go through the pain of losing you all over again. I screwed myself up so bad internally that I couldn't carry a child. I had sex with men that I didn't know for money. I got beat up a few times from tricks that went way wrong. I decided to change my life, and I came to Port Charles. But it didn't change the way that I felt about myself. Or the way that others thought about me when they found out the truth. Yeah, I used my RN to try to get a MRS. I broke up marriages, relationships. I put up with men that treated me like crap because they were my ticket to a better life. It took me a long time to figure out that I was the only one that could change my life. Only time changes things. I still backslide and do the stupidest things-- case and point-- Stefan Cassadine. Great sex but what baggage." Bobbie shakes her head.
"But you got Nikolas out of the deal." Carly reminds.
"Yeah, I got Nikolas." Bobbie laughs and smiles. "You were right about that. I keep the kids. And I found something about myself that I could be proud of-- my home, my work, Lucas. I stopped looking for a man to fix my life FINALLY and what happens-- the best thing that ever happened drops into my lap-- literally. He treats me like a queen, he likes my kids better than I do most of the time." Bobbie puts an arm around Carly's shoulder and hugs her close. "I did my time in counseling. Sometimes it works..." She shrugs. "Sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it takes a while to take. Sometimes you learn something about yourself when faced with the worst of situations. You might have even learned something from Ferncliffe and Stoneybrooke that you never realized."
"Right now I can't imagine that." Carly wraps her arm around Bobbie's waist and together they watch the waves. Quiet minutes pass. Carly takes a deep breath. "Okay, bonding moment over. You're up to speed on what happened at Ferncliffe and we're never going to talk about it again."
"Fine." Bobbie stands and extends a hand to Carly to help her up. "And we're done dealing with all the junk we've pulled on other people. Time to go forward, Baby. One last thing it you are set on going with a tattoo rather than plastic surgery to remove the scars-- I'm thinking sea shell."
"But I really liked the fan idea." Carly protests.
Bobbie rolls her eyes. "Toe MAH toe, Toe MAY toe. Why do I get the feeling that whatever else changes that never will?"