Taggert was still reeling over that morning. After Melinda had reminded
him who she was, he'd swept her up into a hug, causing her to drop her bags
and said:

'Wow! You've gotten so big, Mel.'

Melinda had laughed. 'It happens, Uncle Marcus. I'm fifteen now, you know.'

'Fifteen!' Taggert exclaimed as he put her down. 'It's been that long?'

'You need to learn how to keep in touch, Uncle Marcus.' She advised.

'And he needs to learn how to introduce people.' Keesha said from behind
them. 'Hi, I'm Keesha Ward.'

Melinda surprised her by extending her hand. Keesha took it and shook it.
'Melinda Ross, nice to meet you.'

'How is you know about me but I didn't know about you? Marcus?' Keesha
arched her eyebrow.

'Oh, Mum's always been good at dragging information out of Uncle Marcus. He
has a hard time keeping secrets from her.' Melinda explained.

'But it's pretty easy keeping them from me?' Keesha muttered more to
herself than anyone else.

'You know what, forget what I just said.' Keesha grabbed her purse off of
the coffee table. She smiled at Melinda. 'I guess I'll see you later on
today. I wish I could stay longer but I have a meeting to get to. Marcus,
put her things in the spare bedroom, okay?'

'Keesh, I just want to give you a heads up. Mel's mother should be coming
in a few days. She used to be my boss at the Bureau.'

'Well, thank you for telling me that much. I'll see you later.' Keesha
left.

Melinda wandered over to the couch flopped down. 'She's not big into
keeping secrets is she?'

Taggert rubbed the back of his neck. 'Mel, what are you doing here? By
yourself?'

Melinda propped her feet up on the coffee table. 'I came to visit my
favorite uncle of course.'

'What about school?' Taggert came over and pushed her feet off the coffee
table.

'What about it? Boarding school really doesn't agree with.' She shrugged.
'And I uh…got some time off. You know, for good behavior and all that.'

Taggert nodded, not completely buying it. He peered closely at her. 'Is
that…is that a tongue ring?'

Melinda grinned and stuck out her tongue. 'Yeah, isn't it cool?'

'Does your mother know you have that?' He frowned disapprovingly.

Melinda rolled her eyes. 'Yeah…'

Taggert switched back to the subject. 'I thought you were coming with
Katarina, does she know you're here already?'

'I guess. I mean if she hasn't figured it out by now I'm sure she will
soon.'

'You flew all the way from England without your mother knowing?' Taggert
asked disbelieving. He knew that Katarina had to know where Melinda was at
all times. There was no way the WSB agent would let her fifteen-year-old
daughter run wild.
.
"Uncle Marcus, I'm a big girl okay. I can take care of myself. I got here
safely didn't I?'

Taggert could tell that there was something going on between Melinda and
her mother but he wasn't going to push it. 'What am I going to do with you
until your mother gets here to pick up Layla?'

Melinda sat up. 'Hey, Layla's here? Cause we could hang out. I like her.
She's much prettier than your current girlfriend is.'

'If you want to stay here, you'll never say that in front of Keesha.'
Marcus advised wisely.

'Whatever.' Melinda rolled her beautiful green eyes.

Taggert rose and went over to his desk. He withdrew a slip of paper.
'Here's the room where Layla is staying at.'

She grabbed the paper and quickly scanned it before stuffing it in her back
pocket. 'So what do the young people do for fun in this burg huh? Doesn't
look like much. Makes me miss London so much and I've only been here for a
few hours.'

'You know what the 'young people' are doing right know? They're in school,
like you should be.'

'But I'm not in school, okay? So what do they do *after* school, huh?'

Marcus tried to think of the places were the PCPD had marked as prime teen
hangouts. They were always cruising around making sure nothing rowdy was
going on and on the lookout for perverts who tried to prey on young kids.

'Uh, a lot of them hang out at this diner called Kelly's or sometimes at
the movie theater. The kids get a discount on the matinee special. It's
pretty cheap so the kids are there a lot. It's down at the Quartermaine
Docks Complex.' He informed her. 'That place has a lot down there.'

'A diner and a movie theater?' Melinda sneered. 'Eh, it's better than
nothing.'

'I'll drive you around the city and then drop you off at Layla's. Let me
just call in work and tell them I'm going to be late.'

Marcus had driven Melinda around and pointed out the highlights of the
city. Poor girl seemed bored by the whole place. He knew that her growing
up in the best cities in Europe had spoiled her. He was surprised that
Layla had still been in her room when he got there. Melinda and Layla had
been excited to see each other and he left them to play catch up.

He breathed a sigh of relief knowing that with Melinda in Layla's care,
neither of them would get in trouble…he hoped.

~*~*~
Higgins cautiously walked into the study of the house outside of Port
Charles that Victor had bought. "Sir? He is coming, sir." Higgins informed
Victor.

Victor sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He tossed aside the novel
he had been reading. He had known that it would be a matter of time before
his partner would call about their deal…and Victor's failure to uphold it.
Victor had hoped that he would have had more time however it looked as if
time had run out.

"He called?"

Higgins nodded. "Just a minute ago, sir."

"Prepare a room then, Higgins, we are going to have a guest."

Higgins nodded and started to back out the room. At the door he hesitated.
Victor noticed. "Is there anything else?"

"The two WSB agents have spotted in Port Charles sir."

"Our old friends Frisco Jones and Layla?" Victor asked already knowing the
answer.

Nevertheless Higgins responded. "Yes, sir. Is there anything you want me to
do?"

"Yes. Dispose of Jones and bring Layla to me. I haven't seen her in a
while. I'm sure my guest would enjoy her…charms." Victor smiled slowly.

~*~*~
Carly walked up to the Nurses Station and was unfortunately greeted by Amy
Vining. Carly made a face. She still couldn't stand Amy after all those
years and the feeling was extremely mutual. Carly still shuddered at the
memory of when Mike and Amy got together a few years back. The two of them
had almost made it to the altar until Mike came to his senses. What a close
call. So not only does Amy hate her for busting up Bobbie and Tony's
marriage and for "destroying" Tony (something which Bobbie and Carly have
long moved past) but for her connection to Mike Corbin, the man who broke
her heart.

"Amy." Carly said coolly. "Have you seen my mother?"

"Hello Carly." Amy said with fake brightness. "How's Mike? You know the
scum of the earth?"

Carly grinned at Amy as she faked happiness right back at her. "Oh, he's
doing great! He and Jake moved into together a while back. They are just so
cute together. You know Jake right? Tall, pretty blond who owns the bar and
knows how to keep her mouth shut?"

Amy pursed her lips tightly and rearranged a few files. "Maybe I should
have word with her. Warn her about what type of man he is."

"Whatever. Have you seen my mother?" Carly demanded.

"Here I am. You were looking for me?" Bobbie asked from behind her.

Carly turned around to see Bobbie watching her with expectant and hopeful
eyes. Carly bit her bottom lip. "Yeah, I need to talk to you. Is there
anywhere we can go to talk privately?"

Bobbie's eyes flicked over to Amy who was watching the two of them like a
hawk. "How about we go down to the Recovery Room?" she suggested.

"Yeah, that would be good. I haven't seen Mike in a while." Carly took a
small delight in seeing Amy flinch slightly.

Bobbie passed a folder to Amy. "Amy, here's the file on Mr. Clark in room
234 that you wanted. I'm going to take a break now."

Amy accepted the folder. "Okay."

"Want me to say hello to Mike for you?" Carly couldn't help asking as
Bobbie hustled towards the elevators.

~*~*~
Melinda walked around the Quartermaine Docks Complex for what felt like the
hundredth time. This place was so small a tour of it took fifteen minutes,
she thought. She checked the gold watch her mother had given her for her
thirteenth birthday. Shouldn't the local schools be closed by now? She sat
down on a park bench and sighed again.

After catching up with Layla (which had took all of two minutes considering
Layla actually kept in touch with her) Melinda had told Layla to that she
wanted to explore Port Charles on her own. Layla had agreed and let her do
her own thing. Melinda loved that Layla considered her an adult and old
enough to take care of herself, unlike her mother and Uncle Marcus. They
still saw her as a little girl. Layla had thought her tongue ring was cool.
She also liked the small butterfly tattoo on the small of her back. The
tattoo that her mother and Uncle Marcus would flip about if they knew.

Melinda was about to give up and go search out Uncle Marcus at the police
station when she noticed a group of kids coming her way.

Maxie Jones groaned as she listened to her sister and friends prattle on
and on. She hated that the only way she could go out was to go with Georgie
and her friends. She had to drive them anywhere they wanted. Her mother
could be so twisted at times. Georgie's friends tended to irritate her at
times. But she just had to get out of the house and maybe she could
persuade them to go to Kelly's.

Maxie however took pleasure in the way Georgie had to watch Neil Kanelos
and Serena Baldwin act like a nauseating couple. However now that she
thought about it…Serena was the only being very lovey-dovey. Neil seemed
very quiet and Maxie could swear she saw Neil sending a few looks in
Georgie's direction.

"So… Maximilliana." Tommy Hardy, Neil's best friend, moved over to Maxie's
side. "What movie are you interested in seeing?"

Maxie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She knew that Tommy had a thing
for her and no matter what she said or did he wouldn't leave her alone. He
thought of himself as a smooth talker. She also hated how he just *had* to
be different by calling her by her middle name. "I don't care, Tommy."

"Maximilliana, please…the name is Thomas." He corrected.

"And my name is Maxie." She said curtly. "You get mine right and I'll get
yours right."

"You're so cold, I like that." Tommy grinned.

Lucas smirked at him. "Tommy, man, you should just quit, my cousin isn't
going to fall for you."

"It's only a matter of time." Tommy said boldly.

This time Maxie gave into her urge to roll her eyes. The boy just never
knew when to quit. Sometimes she just wanted to scream at him, "I don't
like you that way! Leave me alone! You're too young for me!"

His being too young for her was just silly considering he just turned 16.
But her taste ran to older guys who ran a dinner and had short dark hair,
one earring, a sweet sexy smile…and a girlfriend. Maxie scowled as she
remembered that.

Lucas nudged Tommy in the side. "Hey, who is that?" He gestured towards
Melinda.

Tommy took in the sight of Melinda reclining against the park bench and it
was like his mouth began to water. "I don't know but I'm going to find out
first."

Maxie wanted to jokingly ask what about her but she decided to give on it
and sit down. Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone that looked
like Lucky and she immediately took off in his direction.

Melinda watched as the two guys brought away from their group and came her
way.

"Hi." She smiled at them and checked them out. One was of average height
and stocky. He had longish dirty blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. The
other was taller and leaner. He had dark skin; short cropped black hair and
twinkling brown eyes. Melinda nodded to herself. Port Charles is starting
to look a lot better.

"Hey yourself." The stocky one said. He had a nice smile, Melinda
thought. "My name's Lucas Jones," he placed his hand and his chest then
jerked his thumb towards Tommy. "And this is Tommy--"

"Thomas Hardy." Tommy corrected him. "Everybody calls me Thomas. They
rarely call me Tommy."

"Melinda Ross. Only a chosen few call me Mel."

"Could I be one of those chosen few?" Tommy flirted.

Melinda laughed. She liked this one. Lucas scowled to himself. "Your
accent…you're from England right?"

She nodded. "Straight outta London."

"See I knew you weren't from around here. You, I would have noticed a long
time ago." Tommy smiled.

Melinda tucked a braid behind her ear. "I'm in town visiting some people."
Melinda's mother had taught her never to reveal everything. You never knew
whom you were talking to and what they might do with the information you
gave them.

"That's cool. So you were sightseeing by yourself?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah but I think I got lost. This place is so…big." Melinda widened her
eyes and looked around as she lied convincingly. Guys just loved it when
you played dumb and they had to come in and rescue you.

"Well we can fix that, right Lucas? We'll take you around town." Lucas
nodded in agreement.

The rest of the group showed up. Lucas turned. "Hey guys, this is Melinda.
Melinda, this is my cousin Georgie, Serena Baldwin and Neil Kanelos." He
pointed to each one as he introduced them.

Melinda sized up this new trio. Georgie was a fragile thin blond with warm
green eyes. Serena was short with white blond hair and cold blue eyes. She
was clutching the arm of the Neil guy. Neil was like a Greek God. He had
curly ink black hair, dark eyes, and olive skin. Melinda immediately
thought yummy! He was eyeing her with interest. However Melinda could
feel some weird vibes coming from the three of them and she could tell
Serena was already viewing her as a rival. Melinda was not going to get in
the middle of that. Lucas and Thomas were enough for her at the moment.

"Hi." She said.

"Is that a tongue ring?" Georgie asked. At last there was someone else to
talk to. She hated watching Serena fawn all over Neil. She needed a
diversion.

"Yeah."

"That is so cool! I want to get one but my mother and stepfather would
kill me." Georgie said. "Your mother let you do that?"

"No. I just went to this place I know and had it done. I go to boarding
school so she doesn't see me much. And when she does I don't open my mouth
wide when I talk. It's real easy to hide a tongue ring." Melinda advised.

"We were going to show Melinda around. You guys want to come along?" Lucas
asked.

"Um, yeah. What do you think Neil?" Serena asked. She didn't trust this
Melinda girl and she wanted to know as much about her as possible. She
didn't like the way she had looked at Neil. Serena tightened her hold on
Neil's arm.

Neil shrugged. "Okay. Fine by me."

Georgie said. "Where's Maxie? She's supposed to be with us?"

Neil jerked his thumb in the direction that Maxie had gone. "She went over
there."

"Maxie!" Georgie shouted. "Come on, we're going!" Georgie was so excited
that she dictated her big sister's comings and goings. She loved her
mother's twisted mind.

Maxie reluctantly came back to the group. Turns out it wasn't Lucky after
all.

"Where we going?" Maxie asked out of boredom.

"Around. Maybe we'll end up at Kelly's. You'd like wouldn't you?" Georgie
smiled nastily. Torturing Maxie was just one of life's little perks.

~*~*~
Carly followed Bobbie into the Recovery Room. Mike greeted them with a big
smile. "Hey! How's my favorite ladies?"

Carly smiled a little. She liked Mike. Over the years they had grown
closer, first through their connection with Michael and later when Carly
and Sonny got together. "We're okay, could we get a table off to the side?"

"Sure, sure." Mike nodded. He led them over to a side table. "How's
Michael?"

"Which one?" Carly asked as she slid into her chair.

"Either one is fine with me."

"The little one is just perfect. Perfectly bad. I swear he inherited all
the wrong genes." Carly laughed a little. "The big one is…well you know how
he is."

Mike nodded. "Right. Jake's been getting at me to have you two over for
dinner, how about it?"

"Um, can we talk about this some other time?" Carly suggested. Mike took
the hint.

"Okay, can I get you ladies anything then?"

"Just a little privacy that's all." Bobbie asked quietly.

"I won't let anyone bother you, okay?" Mike smiled and walked away.

Bobbie turned to Carly. "So…after a week I finally hear from you. Does this
mean you've decided to stop running away from this? I tried to give you
your space but…"

Carly placed her hands on the table and leaned in. "Stefan came to the
penthouse again today. He keeps coming by and trying to get me to talk to
him. I ignore him and he goes away until he decides to try again. I still
haven't heard from that Victor guy, it's like he's disappeared. However
while I was hiding from Stefan I realized that I needed to know everything
about what happened but I needed to hear it from you."

"Carly," Bobbie began. "I really don't think--"

"If you want me to accept…all this, I need to know the beginning."

Bobbie reached for Carly's hand. "Honey, it's not a pretty story…"

"Tell me." Carly demanded. She stared into Bobbie's eyes with steely
determination.

Bobbie sighed and gave in. "All right but I'm not going to tell you
everything. I can't go back there again."

"I need to know how this all began."

Bobbie sat back in her seat. "Carly, it was a wild night. It was some sort
of party, I think. I remember most of it. There were all these men and
girls and alcohol. I distinctly remember…I remember Stefan because he was
very gentle and young. It was a sharp contrast to the others including
Victor."

Carly felt her stomach flip at those words. She knew that the conditions
surrounding her conception weren't a fairy tale but hearing that the man
who could be her father would use a young girl in that manner… She didn't
care how rough or how gentle either man was what they did was wrong. She
swallowed against the horrible taste in her mouth.

"I don't need to know anymore about that night. But tell me did you know
who they were?"

Bobbie shook her head. "No, it wasn't until later, much later. I was in
Port Charles and Luke was caught up in this Ice Princess thing."

Carly nodded. "That was true? I thought it was just some story Luke made
up for Michael."

"It was real. But by then what was the point? You were with the Bensons. I
put you out of my mind and I had my own life…" Bobbie shrugged. "So I
didn't think about it. When Stefan came to town I remembered him. It took
me a while to reconcile the sweet young man he had been to the bitter man
he'd become. He never said a word about it to me and so I never mentioned
it."

"So you knew? After I revealed who I was you knew my father was in town
and you never once said a word to me?" Carly whispered, hurt that Bobbie
would keep this from her.

"Carly, sweetheart, I wasn't exactly happy with you at the time, remember?"
Bobbie said truthfully. She wasn't going to hold anything back. "You had
broke up my marriage and I was supposed to accept you into my arms and do
what? Say, 'By the way your daddy lives out on Spoon Island, would you like
to go over and destroy his life too?'"

"Jeez Bobbie. Tell me what you really felt." Carly muttered under her
breath.

Bobbie shook her head. "Carly, that was how I felt at the time. I wasn't
going to turn you loose on Stefan Cassadine. I thought he didn't remember
that night and me. I felt the introduction of a full grown daughter and
grandson would have disrupted his life."

"The way it messed up yours?" Carly sneered. "So you decided it was better
that neither of us knew about each other is that it? You were protecting
him from me?"

She frowned. "Carly, don't do this. You wanted to hear this so shut up and
listen."

Carly rubbed her forehead and sighed. "Okay so you didn't want me messing
up his life back then, why did you tell him about me now? And why didn't
you tell me about him?"

"I didn't wait until now to tell him. He's known for a while. After I
found out that your were my daughter I went and confronted him and asked if
he knew that you were mine. He shocked me when he informed that he knew. He
knew while you were helping destroy my marriage. He didn't bring up that
night and I assumed he'd forgotten about it so I didn't announce that not
only were you my daughter you could be his."

"Why not? The perfect revenge—me." Carly shrugged.

"I didn't say anything and I just put it in the back of my mind. You were
content. You never asked about your birth father."

"Because I thought he was some faceless john!" Carly exclaimed. "I didn't
know he had a face, a name, and lived in Port Charles."

"Carly, I wasn't sure that Stefan was your father, please remember that.
There is also Victor. For years we thought Victor was dead. Why tell you
about him? Why tell you that your father died in some jail?"

"Why is my paternity just coming to light?" Carly asked confused. "It
seems like everyone involved just wanted to ignore it and go on with their
lives. Why now?"

"The night of my anniversary Victor called and he said he was coming for
you and Michael." Bobbie told her. "I was immediately alarmed. Most of what
I knew about Victor came from Luke and I was scared by what he meant about
coming for you and Michael. I wanted you to be protected and I went to
Luke. Then I remembered Stefan and I knew he had to be told about Victor
being back."

"So you went and told Stefan about me?"

"No, Stefan was the one who announced to everyone that you could be his,
not me. I was stunned that he admitted it."

"So I'm the illegitimate daughter of Stefan Cassadine. The child he never
wanted and is only acknowledging because another man was going beat him to
the punch. Makes me feel so wanted and loved." Carly's eyes blazed with
fury. "I can't discuss this anymore or I'll put my hand through a wall."

"Let's discuss something else then. When are you coming home?" Bobbie
demanded to know.

"What?"

"You know? The Brownstone, where you live? You can't stay at Sonny's
forever. Wh—what are you doing there anyway? Does Alex know that you and
Michael are there?"

Carly leaned back as Bobbie attacked her. "I was just staying there for a
few days. And of course Alex doesn't know that I'm staying there. He hates
Sonny."

"Right he hates Sonny and you're in his penthouse. What kind of game are
you playing?"

"I'm not playing any kind of game!" Carly defended herself. "Would you
stop attacking me? I needed some time away from this whole Cassadine thing
and Sonny's was the best place to go and not be bothered for a couple of
days. It didn't stop Stefan from dropping by all the time of course."

Bobbie peered into Carly's eyes, searching for anything. "So you're just
telling me that you and Sonny are just friends and nothing more? You and
Sonny haven't been *friends* in a long time. I don't think you two were
ever really friends."

Carly shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Well, um, it's more than
friendship on Sonny's side of things…"

Bobbie closed her eyes and groaned. "Carly…"

She rushed to explain. "You aren't listening. *I* am just his friend, sort
of. I've told him over and over again that I love Alex. And I do, Bobbie,
okay? So don't be worrying about anything. Nobody's going to get hurt. He
offered me a place to stay and that's all I accepted. Don't worry."

"Why do I end up worrying more when you tell me not to?" Bobbie asked.
"Carly, I don't care how 'platonic' you're trying to keep things, you can't
stay there. There is Alex to consider."

"Bobbie I haven't forgotten about Alex. He's coming back tomorrow and I'm
moving back to the Brownstone tonight. He won't know a thing and he won't
get hurt."

"Yes he will because I'm going to tell him." Bobbie threatened.

"Damn Bobbie. You can keep my paternity a secret for years but this…you
just can't keep it to yourself?"

"He's going to find out even if I don't tell him. There's plenty of people
in Port Charles who'll do it for you." Bobbie reminded her.

"All right, I'll tell him." Carly gave in, as Bobbie knew she would. "I
was just trying to protect his feelings and now look at what I have to do."