Chapter 8: How We Were Raised
"Sarah has always been a little bit of a drama queen though. I mean, hello, she's Tina's daughter," Jessica said.
"True, I mean Tina even tried to pass her off as dad's," Kevin said.
"But I thought Sarah was Cord's daughter?" Jared asked.
"She is, but Tina and dad had an affair so I guess when Tina learned she was pregnant there was some confusion about who the baby's father was," Kevin Buchanan said.
"Right, ok, because, since neither was sterile, it could have been either's baby. I get it now." Jared said.
Anger flashed in Kevin's eyes and he started to stand.
Natalie watched her sister in law Kelly reach for her husband. Kelly was no match for him physically though, so Natalie sucked in her breath waiting for the fallout. Kevin definitely had a temper, and family wasn't necessarily off limits. He and Todd had gone toe to toe or hard head to hard head numerous times. Although perhaps Todd didn't really count because Kevin refused to consider him family. However, he had beaten up his own son Duke once. Ironically, Natalie believed, that beating had been what had set in motion the night that Kelly had slept with her stepson and Zane was created.
Jessica must have also noticed the tension and, since she was Jessica, she felt the need to fix it. "Now Kevin, things happen, and I'm sure Jared was just pointing out facts not being judgmental," Jessica said.
"Of course, listen, you know really what you and Kelly have done with Zane is admirable," Jared said.
Kevin still looked angry, but he did sit down. "Well, you know it matters more how you were raised than the biology," he said.
"Exactly! When Zane is older; he's going to understand completely and realize just how lucky he is," Jessica said with a broad smile.
Natalie winced at the words. If she mentioned them to Jessica later, she would insist that she was only trying to keep the peace by going along with Kevin; and perhaps she had been. However, Natalie didn't really believe that. She knew that, as much as Jessica liked to babble on about them having a twin connection, she really believed that she was Clint Buchanan's real daughter even if her biological father was Mitch Laurence. If Natalie understood family history correctly, Mitch had originally been Sarah's mother's boyfriend back in the late seventies. No one ever mentioned that, but Natalie wondered how his relationship with Tina tied in with her mother's rape and how either of those events tied in with the affair Tina and Clint had years after that.
Natalie had seen the wedding pictures from her parents' third marriage, March 1, 1986. Her father had not looked happy though, not really. Perhaps it had just been the stress of the day, perhaps. In spite of Jessica's stories about how beautiful their wedding had been, Natalie had often wondered if it had been under duress. After all, Jessica had only been seven; she just might not have had perfect insight. In Natalie's opinion, her father looked like a man who had been marrying one woman and in love with another. What Natalie had started to wonder recently was if Tina had been the woman her father had been longing for.
Natalie took another sip of the tea Jess had made. The chamomile was doing nothing for her nerves. "You know, I completely forgot I made plans to meet Rex and Adriana at Rodi's for dinner," she said. Then she hopped up from the table and darted out of the kitchen before anyone could say anything. She truly had no plans but she also doubted anyone would really care enough to check her story.
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Natalie fastened the final button on her coat as Joey Buchanan reached the bottom of the stairs in the Buchanan mansion. "Is Sarah ok?" she asked as she wrapped her scarf around her neck.
"I think she's just tired. She went through quite an ordeal last month really," Joey said.
"Well I'm glad she's ok," Natalie said and started to take a few steps to the front door.
"Nat?" Joey asked.
Natalie turned back to face him. "Yes?"
"Were you going to be gone long?"
"Probably. I was meeting Adriana and Rex for dinner and then we'll probably go to the Ultra Violet after," Natalie repeated her earlier lie with some further embellishment. She wasn't sure why she needed to avoid Joey. Normally, she felt more accepted by him than really anyone else in the family. But there were a lot of things she just couldn't talk about with anyone, including Joey, so it was best if she just stayed away.
"Oh, well, maybe Sarah and I will join you at UV later if she feels better when she wakes up."
"That's probably a bad idea. I mean we wouldn't want poor Sarah to get too overtired," Natalie said. Her words came out with more bitterness and cattiness than she intended.
"You know, I think if you and Sarah could just kind of let go you might actually get along," Joey said.
"Yeah, well, I'm late to meet Rex so, bye," Natalie said. She opened the front door and stalked out. The tears had already started spilling down her cheeks before she even made it to her car. She got into the car, dropped her head down onto the steering wheel and sobbed.
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Back in the Buchanan kitchen, Jared cleared his throat. "She may be a drama queen, but maybe that is where the eating disorder comes from. I mean negative attention is still attention, right?" he asked.
"It isn't even really negative attention. I mean she completely has Cord wrapped around her little finger," Jessica said.
Outside the closed kitchen door, Joey cringed at his sister's comment. He wanted to believe she was just genuinely concerned and he could understand why she might have been. If he was honest, he had wondered if Sarah had traded in her addiction for something else at different times. He had even confronted her after hearing her throwing up from what had turned out to be the flu. He believed her that he was wrong and Jessica was going to have to believe him that she was wrong, he decided as he pushed the kitchen door open.
"Well that is another consideration," Jared said as Joey stepped into the room.
Unnoticed by the rest of his family, Joey stood quietly against the counter and wondered where Jared was going. He hadn't liked the guy when he had been Natalie's boyfriend and the whole timing of him coming forward as the Buchanan heir had seemed far too convenient. Joey didn't believe he hadn't known he was Asa's son before and he suspected that was why he had insinuated himself into Natalie's life. Setting up a romantic relationship with your niece to spy on your family was pretty messed up as far as Joey could tell. He wouldn't put it beneath Jared though, and he still didn't believe that the earlier situation in the living room was as simple as a misunderstanding.
"What do you mean?" Kelly asked.
"Well eating disorders can be deadly. If Cord can't step in and do the right thing then maybe we need to as her family," Jared said.
"What do you mean?" Kelly asked.
"If people are a danger to themselves, or others, then sometimes they need to go places where they are safe," Jared said.
"Well Sarah isn't really dangerous," Jessica said.
"Annoying, but not dangerous. I agree," Kelly said.
"I suppose Sarah could say the same thing about you, Kelly," Joey said as he stepped forward and took a few steps across the room to join them at the table.
Kelly flashed Joey a wounded look. "I didn't mean anything bad by that," she said.
Joey pulled out a chair and sat down directly across from Jared. There was a time when the look Kelly had flashed would have completely caused him to back off, perhaps even apologize. He had loved her once, they had even been married, but then she had admitted that it had really been Kevin who she had been in love with all along. Or maybe it had been; she had had an affair with her stepson, and she and Kevin were raising the baby that had resulted from that night of passion.
"I'm not sure how annoying can be considered a complimentary term, Kel," Joey said.
Jared laughed, he tried to hide it but failed. "You're distracting us from the true matter at hand, Joe. The fact that Sarah is a danger to herself."
"What do you base that on?" Joey asked.
"Do I need to quote statistics to you? Eating disorders can kill. Starvation is really just a slow form of suicide," Jared said.
"Then we need to start with debunking the myth that Sarah has an eating disorder. Next, we can move onto the fact that any problems Sarah does have are certainly not ones that she needs your help with, Jared," Joey said.
"I'm just a concerned uncle," Jared protested.
Joey could believe that Jared was concerned. Although he doubted that Sarah's welfare was really important to him.
"He's just trying to help, Joey. It's time we laid things out on the table. I think Jared is right, Cord can't really see this for what this is. He's too invested otherwise," Jessica said.
"So, what am I missing?" Cord Roberts asked as he came into the kitchen.
"We were just talking about BE and how you have a lot of outside pressure with your role in Acme and Norscott. This is why Jessica thought it would be best if I spearheaded the development and acquisitions task force for the board. Someone must keep their finger closely on the pulse of BE," Jared said. He flashed a quick wink to Jessica after his little speech and what Joey supposed was intended as a smile but came off as a sneer.
Well so much for laying everything out on the table, Joey thought.
Jessica flashed one of trademark sweet smiles. "It isn't that we don't all appreciate what you have done in the past, Cord. Of course, now Jared is here and perhaps more able to devote the time needed."
"Exactly! We all want to see BE succeed, just like Pa would have wanted," Jared said.
"You know, Jared, coming back to the BE board was not something I asked for. Having said that, I don't do things half way and I do take a certain amount of pride in professionalism," Cord said.
"Of course, but with you basically running two other companies, are you really able to have day to day involvement with BE?" Jared asked.
"Jared really was underutilized as Natalie's assistant. Since coming onto the board only last month, he's really gotten a great handle on everything," Jessica said.
"Well not everything, Jessica. The international side of BE is a bit out of my realm. I just don't really have the background there, but Kevin has been keeping me up to speed on that, and I think we've got a plan right, Kevin?"
"Right, but we really need to secure more drilling sites on US soil, which is why I think dad's proposal is a real move in the right direction. I wonder how negotiations on that front are going," Kevin said.
"I would say they aren't," Cord said.
"You know there is a word for people like you, Cord, it's called pessimistic. Do you think if Pa was a pessimist he would have turned a single oil well into an international empire?"
"I was merely referring to the fact that at least twenty minutes ago Clint's plane was still on the tarmac at the airport. Not that he will be successful even if he ever manages to make it to Port Charles. Drilling on the ELQ property in question is a dead issue; it isn't happening and nothing anyone says is going to sway Edward's mind," Cord said.
Jared smirked. "You seem to devalue Clint's negotiation skills."
"Honestly, I suppose I more value the logical decision making of ELQ Enterprises. Basically, Clint is wasting their time, and his own."
"But you don't realize what Clint may have on his side in negotiation, a little information that I provided him with. One must never be unaware of the other side's vulnerabilities," Jared said.
Joey saw that Cord tensed slightly at that which made him believe perhaps there could be something behind the bravado on Jared's part. Even if it ended up being good for BE, Joey could only see it as unfeeling. Sarah had explained that Ned's little girl was very ill, and although he really hadn't spoken to Ned much in the past few years, he did remember how kind Ned had been to him the summer he had interned at ELQ. That had been the summer that Brooke Lynn had been born.
"Well, I guess you have to do what you have to do, Jared. But remember there are always consequences to every action. By the way, I met with Jake Seeley this afternoon," Cord said.
Joey saw the look of confusion that passed over Jared's face. He had no idea what Cord had referred to and it showed.
Cord smiled at Jared's silent admission. "I'm sure you know this, since you have your finger securely on the BE pulse, but Jake Seeley is the CEO of Farbanks Petroleum. Before his impromptu flight to Port Charles, Clint had arranged to meet with both him and Palmer Cortlandt this afternoon. Lureen had rescheduled the Cortlandt meeting before I realized, which makes us look incompetent. Mr. Seeley had flown all the way in from Texas, so I took care of that meeting."
Jared's left eye started to twitch. "Well, that must have been just a simple misunderstanding."
"I realize you're new to this family but Clint's simple misunderstandings tend to leave a lot of damage in their wake. You might want to jump off the wave, just a little friendly advice," Cord said. Then with another smile, he turned and exited the kitchen.
In an effort to hide the humiliation, Joey was sure, Jared started talking about some movie he had just seen. Jessica and Kelly joined into the conversation, while Kevin got himself another beer. Joey looked across the table at his family and reflected on what he had just witnessed. Although he hated BE, he wasn't oblivious to where the power lines lay. Jared was clearly asserting his claim for control, Kevin was getting drunk, and Cord was cutting through the crap as always. Traditional roles in families could be hard to step out of.
Jared's attempt to establish himself at the top of the Buchanan heap wasn't really a surprise. However, Joey found something much more interesting in the interaction. Jessica seemed to be helping Jared's quest for control. Perhaps that was just her nature of always wanting to help the underdog. Still, Joey wondered if that was what it really was. He was afraid there might be something much deeper and darker in his baby sister's motivations.
With another sigh, Joey got up from the table. "I'm going to go upstairs. I've got a sermon to work on," he announced. However, Jessica and Kelly were too entranced in their conversation with Jared to really acknowledge his departure.
**Key Canon Deviation:
The only people who knew that Tommy McBain should really be Tommy Manning were Spencer Truman and Lindsay Rappaport. Lindsay did kill Spencer to keep the secret and then faked her breakdown in court at her arraignment in September 2007. When Marcy visited her at St. Anne's after the hearing she told Marcy why she had really murdered Spencer. Marcy wanted to keep the secret but was afraid of Todd finding out the truth and after much soul searching blurted the information out to their caseworker. DNA testing confirmed that Todd was indeed the likely father but the judge opted to leave Tommy in the McBains custody until the hearing which is scheduled for early January.
