"You look beautiful," Monica gushed over her newfound daughter.
Rinoa beamed at the compliment, and, in reply, did a 360 spin to show off the dress she had on. It wasn't a floor-length dress, and, in fact, it was quite at the other end of the spectrum: the dress ended slightly above her knees. The dress was sleeveless, and it was of a creamy yellow color.
"I'm going to have to beat all the guys back with a stick," AJ joked. "Beauty, brains, wealth- a true catch for any man."
"Rinoa's not a catch," Courtney scolded lightly. "No woman is a catch, AJ."
"Besides," Rinoa grinned, eyes twinkling, "it's not like I'm a teenager who needs her older brother to protect her. Like you said, AJ, I've got brains. It's not like I'm going to fall for a loser who's going to seduce me for my wealth."
"Yeah," Courtney laughed. "You're going to get a prince to fall for you, and princes are loaded."
Idiot.
"A prince?" AJ repeated, one eyebrow quirking upwards as he echoed Courtney's words. "What prince?"
"Courtney's just being weird," Rinoa winked, keeping true to her role. Courtney, as Rinoa has planned, had quickly become her best friend. And why wouldn't she have? Courtney had been in desperate need of a friend, and Rinoa's appearance into Port Charles had answered Courtney's need for a friend perfectly.
*******
Skye's suite…"Ok, Skye, the party's going to start in a few minutes, and besides showering and picking your outfit, you've done nothing to get ready," Skye mumbled to herself. A life of independence and separation had been a lonelier and sadder path than she had anticipated.
Skye set down her hairbrush and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She was going to the party- there was no question about that. The question, really, was whether or not she'd be allowed to stay at the party or if she'd even be given entrance into the party.
At the very least, the party was right downstairs and, if it turned out that she wasn't welcome to the party, then she would have a quick retreat to "home base".
So which was preferable? Going to the party soon after it started, when, hopefully, only a small number of people had showed up, or stalling the inevitable and going later when, unfortunately, there would be more guests to be humiliated in front of?
The first choice sounded the best option, but, regardless, going down to the party where the rest of the Quartermaines were wasn't an appealing thought.
For all her claims of independence and freedom from emotional outbursts, she was still too accustomed to seeking some sort of approval or friendship. What if she went to the party and was greeted only with anger and loathing?
Scarlett O'Hara had gone to Ashley Wilke's birthday party as an outcast. Her husband, Rhett Butler had deserted her, Yet Scarlett had been accepted, if only because the town sweetheart Melanie Wilkes had insisted on it.
It would be no different in her case. Scarlett O'Hara had done what she needed to do in order to make a living and create a stable financial situation for her family. Skye Chandler Quartermaine had done what she had to in order to secure her and AJ's health from the likes of Sonny Corinthos. She had done what she needed to do in order to guarantee a chance that one day Sonny Corinthos could one day be taken down and destroyed. And if all that meant that she had to lose some friends and loves along the way, then so be it.
"Skye?" Rae called out as she knocked on the door to Suite 931. "Skye, it's me, Rae… your mother."
Skye turned away from her mirror, her reflective thoughts, and stared at the door. What was her mother doing in Port Charles?
*******
Port Charles Hotel Ballroom…"You have got to be kidding," Monica snorted. "That man is not welcome here."
"Don't make a scene," Alexis whispered in to Sonny's ears, although she trusted and knew he wouldn't.
"Alexis," Ned greeted with a stiff smile. "I thought you'd know better than to bring Sonny as your date." Especially since he and Kristina had thought she and Jax had been getting along together so well.
"Sonny and I did come together," Alexis verified. "But he is, by no means, here only because he came with me. He has his own invitation."
"That's ridiculous," Monica scoffed. "The only way he'd have an invitation is if he stole it from someone."
"Which wouldn't be too big of a surprise considering who he is," Edward added snidely.
"I didn't steal it from anyone," Sonny said defensively. "I was given the invitation and asked to come. And it would have been rude of me to not attend, since, you know, she came by to personally invite me over."
"Who invited you?" Monica demanded. "No one would have invited you, Sonny."
"I did," Rinoa called out from where she was, halfway across the room. She turned back to those standing around her and smiled lightly at them. "You trust me, big brother?"
"I think so," AJ said slowly. He shared a mystified look of confusion with Courtney. Rinoa knew how he felt about Sonny, yet she had invited him to the party? What if Sonny was seducing his sister? "You, Courtney?"
Courtney turned towards the entrance, where the leaders of the Quartermaine clan and the newly arrived guests stood. She squinted her eyes at her brother and Alexis, and tried to decide if their presence at the party would threaten her and AJ's fun. "Well, I guess at least he isn't with Carly," Courtney conceded.
"She's not invited," Rinoa said quickly, grinning. She winked at AJ and Courtney and then went towards the entrance of the ballroom to greet the guests.
"This party just got very… interesting," Courtney said weakly.
"I hope Skye doesn't bring him," AJ muttered darkly, his eyes trained on his mortal enemy although his mind was focused elsewhere. Although, having Roscoe at the party might not be a bad idea as, in the best of situations, Roscoe and Sonny could end up killing each other.
*******
Skye's suite…Skye sat stiffly in her seat. She watched with narrowed eyes as her mother filled her in on the recent happenings as Llanview.
Todd and Blair Manning had just adopted a new baby and Starr was jealous of all the attention showered on the baby. Personally, Skye wished the baby luck and thought both Starr and the baby would be better off if they were neglected by their psychotic parents. Oh, and Starr has saved a man's life. But whether or not this man deserved to be saved was the question.
This man had seduced and betrayed Lindsay Rappaport into admitting to a past crime. But which crime had been worse: the past committed crime or the crime of seducing and betraying a woman?
"Rae, get to the point," Skye said, her voice jammed pack with irritation. "We both know you didn't come all the way to Port Charles so that you could fill me in on the current events at Llanview."
Out of habit, Rae gritted her teeth. Her daughter was as stubborn as a mule, and talking reason into her was going to be an uphill battle.
"So who told you? Dad?" Skye hazarded a guess. "Or did Monica want to rub it in that evil Skye has brought the mob into her sacred home?"
"It was Alan," Rae admitted. "Your father is very worried about you."
"And about Roscoe, the man I've taken into my life," Skye said monotonously. "It kind of feels like a disapproving father over his teenager daughter's choice of a boyfriend. You know, dad has had a problem with his other daughter's boyfriend. I guess this latest disapproval he has for me officially makes me his daughter."
"Alan doesn't disapprove of you, he disapproves of your choice. Your father does love you," Rae said gently to her daughter. "And his concern over your latest decision is just one of many ways he shows it."
Skye resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Banishing a daughter from the family home was not a form of love. Well, at least not in Skye's mind.
"But I suspect that this latest choice of yours has nothing to do with your father," Rae added. "Am I right?"
Skye reclined back in her seat, and rested her head against her right hand. "Maybe."
Rae leaned forward, mentally taking note that her daughter had chosen this part of the conversation to retreat into the back of her chair. "The last time I was here in Port Charles," Rae started slowly, "you talked to me about a perfect, wonderful guy whom you wanted a love potion or recipe for."
"And you want to know what happened to him?" Skye frowned.
"First promise me that you weren't talking about this Roscoe fellow then," Rae requested. A part of Rae was worried that her daughter's taste in men was so incredibly bad that she had indeed been referring to him.
"He wasn't. The other guy fell through," Skye said darkly. "And that's all I want to talk about him." It was bad enough that, if Jax kept his promise, he was going to hunt her down during Rinoa's party.
"What happened?" Rae probed ignoring Skye's wishes. "What happened to him? To the two of you?"
"Nothing," Skye said crossly. She crossed her arms in front of her, and glared angrily at Rae.
Should she probe deeper or switch the topic? If, as Rae suspected, this was the reason for Skye's decision to enter Roscoe's life and have him enter hers, then talking about the root of the problem and why Skye had made such an insane decision had to be issues that had to be resolved.
"Why can't you tell me what happened?" Rae asked gently. "Don't think of me as a psychologist, Skye, but as your mother. What happened?"
*******
Port Charles Hotel Ballroom…Rinoa's head tilted slightly towards her left. She squinted her eyes a little, and studied, with great concentration, the couple standing by the staircase. "I don't see it," Rinoa confided to Courtney. "They're not really dating, are they?"
Courtney glanced quickly in the direction of the staircase. "Yeah, they're dating," Courtney confirmed. "Elizabeth Webber and Lucky Spencer. She's the girl who almost died in the accident, and Lucky's her boyfriend. They're best friends with Nikolas and Gia."
Grandmother was obsessed with Lucky Spencer. She had some kind of diamond thing to make him do her every bidding. Yet, he had broken control of it and had regained his own free will. Very impressive.
"He's kind of cute," Rinoa commented softly. According to her sources, Elizabeth and Lucky were over, regardless of what they said or claimed.
*******
Skye's suite…"We had a difference of opinions," Skye said finally, ending the three minutes of silence that had existed between her and her mother. "I wanted certain things in life, and, even though he was able to give them to me, he just wasn't willing to."
"What did you want?"
"Oh, just what every girl wants," Skye sighed, waving her right hand in a dismissive gesture. "True love, safety from everyone, fairytale ending… everything." The fairytale ending part certainly would encompass the part about extracting revenge and protecting her brother.
"Last Christmas, the way you described the other guy," Rae said quietly, thoughtfully, "I would have thought that he would be able to give you all these things."
A minute of silence passed. And then another minute passed, only to be followed by a continual wave of silence. Skye allowed the memories of the past Christmas holiday to return to her. And, with those memories, came the sadness and longing for a time not long past, of a time when the beginnings of a promising relationship with Jasper Jacks had just begun to form. And then, when Skye was ready to talk, her voice had strangely changed.
"But he wasn't in love with me," Skye said shakily. "And, uh… that decided everything."
"You said he suffered a terrible heartbreak," Rae said soothingly. "Perhaps all he needed was time."
Skye shook her head wobbly. She was surprised when she felt tears form at the edge of her eyes, and then was astonished when Rae stood up, walked towards her and then placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. Rae gently patted her daughter's head, and Skye instinctively rested her head against the crook between her mother's shoulders and head.
"It, uh, wasn't that," Skye said sadly. "He, uh… I uh… showed him the, um…" Why was it so hard for her to say the words that were in her heart? Because she had forsaken her heart and everything it had held? "I showed him the real me, and he hated it. He said he couldn't get involved with someone like me and left."
Rae cringed inwardly, but remained a silent pillar of support.
Skye wiped her tears away. "I showed him the real me," Skye repeated desolately. "The part that entailed lying, scheming, and manipulating. And he didn't like it. At all."
"You can change," Rae encouraged softly. She didn't like those qualities in her daughter, either.
But those were qualities that were as much a part of her as her Quartermaine blood. Maybe it even came from her Quartermaine blood. "He knew I was like this," Skye continued softly, sniffling in between a few of her words, "but he still gave me a chance. But then he got tired of it, and he was done with me. He left me, and went back to his ex-wife."
Rae frowned. She hadn't known that this perfect guy of Skye's had an ex-wife.
"And she's perfect for him," Skye said miserably. "She's as clear and day and can't tell a lie." Well, maybe, maybe not. Skye didn't know Alexis well enough to make those statements about Alexis. And lawyers always stretched the truth and bended it to their own will.
The thought awakened an angry, charged feeling within Skye. It enraged her to think that she is being passed over for someone who is so similar to her. Why wasn't she good enough?!
A hard glaze settled in Skye's eyes. She stiffened in her current position, and then sat up. She leaned away from the comforting shoulder her mother had provided, and once again took a defensive stance. "But this Roscoe guy, mom? He doesn't judge me for what or who I am. He doesn't hate me for all the lies I tell."
Rae sighed. She could tell from both her daughter's eyes and her posture that the brief moment of Skye baring her soul had ended. "But isn't he filled with his own lies?"
"And he gives me what I want," Skye continued, ignoring Rae's comment. "We both want the same things in life, mom. And we both are willing to give it to each other. What more can I ask from life?"
"Love," Rae said simply. "Love."
Skye wiped the last of her tears away. Her composure had returned completely, and she was once again in complete control of her emotions. "Love is for suckers. Love doesn't last. It hurts. Love is a losing proposition with lousy odds." That was what she had said to AJ long ago, and that, along with I over E, was what she was going to adhere to and believe in. "I'm not looking for love, Rae, and I don't expect it from Roscoe or anyone else." Skye stood up and walked towards her bedroom. She had a party to get ready for. "And I'll never be disappointed again, cause I'll never expect it from anyone or anything."
Rae watched her daughter close her bedroom door to prepare for Rinoa's party. It was too symbolic, too full of meaning for Rae to not notice her daughter's action: how her daughter had stiffened at the thought of sharing her feelings, but due to emotional stress and build-up, had been too full of emotional stress to hold it in for long.
And the way her daughter's eyes had glazed over, like a curtain falling over the eyes that showed the true soul of the person. It had been no coincidence that it was at that point that her daughter had replaced her shields and emotional and mental defenses, and had forced her emotions away. And the same could be said about Skye's decision to end the conversation to prepare for the party. She had closed the door, another barrier between the person whom Skye truly was and the world outside. She had closed the door so that she could dress herself up into a gown, and, once again, cover up just whom she really was.
But was this any of Skye's fault? Years of rejection had to have some sort of effect on the woman. Years of being abused and neglected at Althea Chander's hands, and years of being treated with secondary attention while under Adam Chandler's hands, years of rejection for other women possessing various characteristics that Skye didn't have. No wonder Skye often felt so insufficient, as if she had to lie and pretend to be something that she simply wasn't. At some part in her life, Skye had been taught, conditioned, to believe that she, meaning the real her, wasn't sufficient. That, unless she pretended to be something she wasn't, she would always be rejected. Skye Chandler Quartermaine had been taught to be something that she wasn't, and that included lying and pretending to be something and someone else.
After several years of pretending, Skye had taken the next step down its path and had begun to reject those she felt would reject her once they recognized who she really was. Or, at least whom she thought she was. Or, even, what she had been forced to become. Skye Chandler Quartermaine had taught herself to push others away before they could have a chance to see her for her true self and, as Skye assumed they would, push her away.
And that frightened Rae. It frightened her to think that her daughter had been raised in such a way, and that her daughter now had such an incredibly low self-esteem.
Alan had seen it. He had even told Rae. But had they ever done anything about it? They had both known that Skye was incredibly vulnerable, and that she put up a front to protect her fears of inadequacy. The obvious solution had been to love their child unconditionally, to love her despite whatever outrageous stunt she pulled. But neither parent had done it.
So what do you do with a woman who pretends to be something she isn't due to a fear that her true self will be rejected? Or what do you do with a person who pushes those around her away by being cruel, vicious and mean simply because she is afraid of showing her true self to others due to fear of rejection?
Rae Cummings had finally realized a part of her daughter that Jax, the man whose name her daughter had never told her, had long ago realized, even if he hadn't figured out what to do about it. Skye Chandler Quartermaine was a complicated woman, but what she wanted and what she needed were really quite simple. All Skye ever wanted or needed was someone to accept her for who she was, and love her for who she was.