DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters (damn it!), they belong to ABC, the producers of GH and Goddess knows whoever else.
I~ Note Jarred has an Australian accent, he was raised by his Australian Uncle and Aunt. Even though he grew up in Florida, he was mostly kept at home. He didn't interact much with other children, there by learning to speak by example with only Australian accents surrounding him. That's why he has one, and his sentence structure will sound different than if he had been raised by Carly. ~/I
I~ I deeply apologize for how long you have had to wait for this chapter. I started my summer vacation, and I didn't work as diligently as I used to during the school year. I am very sorry, and I hope that you will forgive me, and keep reading. I promise to work harder to keep the chapters from coming so far apart. ~/I
Prevailing Over All
By Clover
Chapter 13
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Alexis and Carly called in "the troops" as they were know, for breaking news like this. Emily, Lucky, Ned, Jerry, Laura, and Ana respectively. It was a large group, but a perfect combination for finding the right way to break all the news. They were all at Lukes within an hour.
It took four hours, and a lot of arguments, but they'd finally come to an agreement, there was no easy way to tell your mother the truth.
Carly sighed, "Thanks for all your help guys. I did get some great pointers on how to tell the truth to anyone else I'd ever need to, but when dealing with mothers, I guess there is no easy way to do it." She stood up and put on her apron because her shift was about to start.
"Now, I want to see you all at Nurses Ball tryouts tomorrow, with idea's for skits, oh, and Ned, Lucky, I need to speak to you about a special act I want you to do for me. The rest of you can go, but be at the tryouts, we only got a little more than two months to get everything perfect. Laura, thanks for agreeing to be co-hostess." Carly told them, then went behind the bar.
The group is marveled at her nature, then all leave. Except for the two men Carly asked to stay. They looked at each other, then went to the bar.
"Carly, what do you want us to do at the Nurses Ball?" Lucky asked, getting right to the point.
"Well, first of all if I can get everyone I want, it will be; you two, the Scanlons, Sly, Nikolas, Taggert, Courtney, V, Emily, Lark, Felicia, Lois and I. I figured, if I'm going to carry on the tradition of the hostess ending up in her underwear, I'm not going to do it alone."
"What are you saying?" Ned questioned getting wary.
"Boys, times they are a changing, and so is the Nurses Ball . . ." Then she leaned in and gave them the details.
You could hear Ned's laughter on the other side of the room.
b** 20 minutes later **/b
Ned and Lucky were leaving Lukes.
"I can't believe she talked us into that." Ned moaned as they walk out the door.
They looked back once and saw Carly watching them leave, with a triumphant grin on her face. Then they walked out of the bar, their heads hung low in defeat
During Carly's break she'd made the multiple phone calls to the parties of whom she wished to involve. Thank fully, everyone agreed.
She came out from Luke's office in a good mood.
She didn't even frown when she saw Robin at the bar.
"Hey Robin! How are you doing today?" Carly greeted brightly.
"What is wrong with you?" Robin asked sneering.
Carly's good mood disappeared, "I was just trying to be nice. Sorry for bothering you."
Then Carly stalked off to a table to get some businessman's order.
~*~
b** Three hours later **
** The Brownstone **/b
Carly took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.
Bobbie opened it and smiled, "Carly! What are you doing here?"
"Bobbie, we need to talk." Carly told her seriously.
Bobbie's smile disappeared and she let Carly in. They went into the living room and sat down.
Carly looked down at her hands, "Bobbie, it's about my father. My biological father."
"What about him, I can't tell you anything, I don't even know who he is."
"You see, that's just it, I don't need you to tell me anything about him. He's been helping raise me since I was born, I used to live with him for two weeks every other month. And the thing is, he's in town, and he's moving here with his wife."
Bobbie looked at her, stunned, "You know who he is? You've known him your entire life?" Bobbie repeated carefully.
"Yes. His name is Demitri Marick, he's a Hungarian count."
"He's a Hungarian count." Bobbie echoed.
"Yes, and then there's the matter of his wife."
Bobbie shook her head, as if to clear it, "Who's his wife?"
"Have you ever heard of Erica Kane?"
"The famous model?"
"That's her. She is the nicest person you've ever met, and Erica and Papa love each other so much"
Bobbie stood abruptly and started pacing, "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"There was never a right time to do so. I mean, how was I supposed to tell you, Mama, you know the John you had sex with once when you were a hooker and got you pregnant, well I've known him my entire life and he's rich, royalty, and he's married to a famous model. Yeah, there was really an appropriate time to tell you that." Carly said sarcastically standing up too.
"I'm sure you could have come up with some time before now if you had really thought about it!"
"You know what?! FINE! I came here, trying to be nice, I tried to break it to you gently and you are angry with ME for not telling you sooner! I wonder why!" Carly screamed. Then ran out of the Brownstone slamming the door behind her. Billy barely has enough time to get into the front of the limo before Carly orders Johnny to drive home.
b** 20 minutes later **/b
Carly slammed the door behind her to find the boys asleep, and Jason not home. She really needed to talk to her best friend, so she decided to wait up for him.
Carly curled up on the couch and grabbed a magazine off the coffee table and flipped through it.
~*~
b** The cottage ** /b
Sonny summed up his courage, and knocked on the door.
The door opened a few seconds later.
Ana was surprised to see him there, "Papa, I was not expecting you."
"I know, can I come in?" Sonny asked.
"Of course, please." Ana exclaimed, ushering him inside.
Both were totally silent for a few awkward moments.
Then Sonny spoke, "Um, I know that we haven't really had the chance to really talk, and I think that it's really important that we do."
"You are right, we really should talk about what has happened. And about, things."
"First of all, how are things with you and Nikolas?"
"Great. As you know we live together now, and L&B offered me a contract to sing for them. I told them that I would think about it. That woman who seems to be in charge is, zealous."
Sonny laughed, "You mean Lois, I've known her since I was a kid. We grew up together. Her husband Ned is the down to earth one."
"He's the one who used to be Eddie Maine right? My mother secretly loved Eddie Maine."
"She did? Natalia didn't seem like the type to like that sort of music." Sonny said amused.
"I know, it was a secret that she and I had. My Grandfather Alexander hates music like that. He had my mother and I well taught in the classical music's, although he did let us listen to traditional music as well sometimes."
Sonny felt a little guilty, even though he knew that there was no way to prevent what had happened, "Did you have a nice childhood?"
"Yes. It was very nice, the best schools or tutors, all the toys I ever wanted. I had my mother, I had my Grandfather, and I traveled the world. Sure the bodyguards put a damper on dates. But I guess that it would have been the same no matter what had happened." Ana finished quietly.
"Yeah, I guess it would have. So, you were happy?"
"I guess, I mean, I always wished for a father, and never understood why mother used to tell me that was impossible, but I understood when mother explained why. Of course that was right before she passed away, but that was how it had to be."
"Yeah, I guess so." Sonny looked at his watch, "Wow, it's late. I'd better get going."
Ana looked up at the grandfather clock by the landing, "Oh my, Nikolas will be home soon." Both stood up.
Sonny walked to the door and opened it, he turned around briefly, "If you ever need anything, just call."
"I will." Ana promised.
Sonny nodded his head, then quietly closed the door behind him. He slowly walked towards the limo, thinking about his teenage daughter, who was so old. It made him feel so, inexplicable.
~*~
b** Around midnight **/b
Jason quietly came inside, he'd been out riding all night, trying to clear his head.
He didn't even see Carly at first. He went over to the couch to sit down and thing some more, and found Carly there asleep. Jason didn't have the heart to wake her up, so he gently picked her up and carried her upstairs.
Jason laid her onto his bed and carefully pulled back the covers. He removed her shoes. She stirred, "Jase?"
"Yeah."
"What time is it?" Carly yawned.
"Late. Very late. You fell asleep on the couch."
"Oh." Carly sat up a bit, "Could you hand me my nightgown?"
"Um . . . " Jason looked around, and finally located the short, black nightie, "Here it is."
"Thanks, stay a minute, will you?" Carly took the scrap of satin and went behind a changing screen she had in her room. She removed her clothes and put it on.
Jason could see the outline of her body through the screen, and found the sight very alluring. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had complete control of himself when Carly reappeared and sat back down on her bed.
"Johnny said that you looked mad when you came here. What happened?" Jason asked concerned, sitting down beside her.
"I talked to Bobbie today." Carly told him, leaning against his shoulder, "I told her about my father. I got so mad at her reaction to that that I forgot to tell her about us. I don't even want to think about how she's going to react when she finds out about that."
"How badly did she take the news?"
"She yelled at me for not telling her sooner." Carly sighed, "It's not that I didn't want tell her sooner, well actually it is. I didn't really have a reason to tell her, what purpose would it have served? Bobbie was lucky that I even told her that he was in town and that he was moving here with Erica. I didn't have to, I was worried how she would feel about having him living here, that's why I told her. Then she got mad at me. I yelled at her, then ran out of the house and came here."
Jason nodded his head, understanding that she just needed a sounding board, not someone to dispense advice. Carly was his best friend, and he knew that she lashed out when she was confused, hurt, or angry. It wasn't the right time to say anything, so he just wrapped his arms around her and gave her the comfort she needed.
~*~
b** The next day, across town **/b
Erica looked around her new home. It was beautiful. Designed in the 1850's it had beautiful dark wood everywhere, and lots of big windows. The doors were large solid-oak, and the ceilings were high. She had big plans for this place, but she needed an interior designer, and she knew just who to call.
Erica whipped out her cell phone and dialed the number she knew by heart.
The person on the other end answered on the second ring, "Hello?"
"Honey its Erica! Guess what? I'm in Port Charles right now, and I just bought a house."
"You are? You did?! That's great!"
"I was wondering if I could hire you to decorate. It already has most of it's original furniture but I want to re-do some of the stuff."
"Really? You want me too do it? Of course I will, I won't even charge you."
"Oh, I can't take advantage of you like that."
"I insist. Besides, you're the only one in my family I wouldn't charge there is no way that I would ever make you pay. Plus I love doing it."
"Well, alright. How soon can you be here?"
"I can be there in 15 minutes, just give me the address." The woman responded.
Erica gave the address then hung up smiling.
b** 15 minutes later **/b
Erica looked out the window and saw a limo pulling up. She was a bit surprised about the limo and with the bodyguards.
Erica hurried to the door and opened it; "Oh I missed you!" She carefully pulled Carly into a hug, being careful not to squish Michael in the process.
"I missed you too Erica, why didn't you and Papa come sooner for a visit. I hope you don't mind, but I brought the boys." Carly apologized, hoisting Michael up higher with one arm, and leading Jarred in with the other.
Adam followed close behind, and closed the door.
"Of course not! I have always wanted to meet Michael. And I have so missed Jarred. How are you Jarred?"
"Great, Nana Erica!" Jarred proclaimed in his Australian accent, then gave Erica a big hug with his tiny arms.
"That's wonderful!" Erica exclaimed, then she straightened up and led Jarred into one of the large rooms. "So I hear that you went on a little adventure."
"Yeah, I came all the way to Port Charles, all by me self. Mummy was real surprised. And then I met my Dad, and the rest of my family. And my Uncle Jerry is married to my Grandma Bubbie, and my Uncle Lucas is nine, so he's the coolest. My cousin Lucky is really cool too and he has a girlfriend named Emily, she's a model like you are. They have a band together and are famous too! Lucky sometimes watches me during the day at his apartment, it's really cool, and he and Emily designed it.
Sonny's cool too, he has bodyguards, and Mummy spends the night with him sometimes, but always tucks me and Michael in first, and she's there when I wake up most of the time, but if she's not her friend Jason is. Jason is Michael's dad, and Jason's Emily's brother. Michael's named after Sonny, cause Sonny's real name is Michael, and he's Jason's best friend. Uncle Luke is weird though, he doesn't like my Dad and Uncle Jerry much, and he smokes cigars all the time. Lucky has a sister, her name is Lulu, and she's six so we're going to go to school together next year. This town is so cool. It even has an island called Spoon Island with a really big house on it that has a name, it is called Wyndemere. Uncle Luke calls the island Spook Island. He says that a real vampire lives there called Count Vlad, but pretends to be man named Stefan Cassadine. Lucky says that he's not really a vampire thought, and that he's Lucky's brother Nikolas's Uncle."
Carly shook her head, her son seemed to know everything about the families, even the fact that she'd spent a few nights at Sonny's, which was something, she didn't think he even knew. She also made a mental note to cut down on the visits to Luke. And she also could tell that 'cool' was Jarred's new favorite word.
Carly followed her stepmother and other son into the living room, Michael in one arm, the diaper bag and her design stuff in the other.
Carly got the boys situated on the floor with things to do, then went to Erica.
"So, what did you want done here?"
"Well, I don't know yet, I haven't seen the whole house yet."
"I can do that. I've always wanted to decorate a house with nothing already planned. Now lets take a survey of the house." Carly informed Erica, then went and put Michael in a playpen one of the guards had put on the ground. She turned to Jarred, "Jay, watch your brother, and stay in this room. Mommy will be back in a few minutes, we have to look around the house."
She turned to the guard who's at the door, "Adam, will you make sure the boys are safe. We shouldn't be to long, and Jarred trusts you."
"Of course Carly, Jarred a sweet kid and Michael's never any trouble." Adam agreed, calling her that because she had insisted.
"Thanks." Carly turned to Erica, "Do you have a floor plan of the house?"
"Yes, it's over here." She picked up a stack of five papers, "Here they are. You can write on these too, they're just copies. The top one's the attic, then the third floor, the second floor, the main floor, then the basement/wine cellar."
"Good." Carly looked over the plans, then flipped over to the room they were in. "Well, I think this was the drawing room, behind us is the dinning room, then there's the kitchen behind that. The one on the other side of the staircase was the living room, then the library, and a study behind there. Underneath the stairs was storage area. And the stairs to the basement"
They went in the dinning room.
"I can't believe that most of the furniture is the stuff that was in the house during the 1860's. I can't believe it withstood time so well."
"Well the previous owners said that the house had been in the family for generations and the will had said that everything had to stay the same, so all they did was about 20 year ago they had everything restored to it's original condition." Erica explained as they looked into the library, "However, apparently, the last member of the family, the man I bought it from, accidentally forgot to pay his taxes since 1943, and he had to file for bankruptcy. He sold the house, lock, stock, and barrel at a fraction of the retail value, so he could escape the country."
"Wow, that's quite a story. Besides, however you got it, this place is amazing. I have always wanted to see a house like this. I mean, I feel as though I stepped back into the past."
"I know, isn't it great?"
"Yes it is. I am going to be spending a lot of time here." Carly exclaimed looking into the living room.
Carly walked out of the room, then they go up the stairs. "Alright, up here to the right, was the master bedroom on the end, it's very large, and you have major closet space. The room next to it on the left was converted into a bathroom, and down the other way is other bedrooms." They walk down the hall, and they see only two doors.
They go into the room on the left first. It had white walls, but dark wood on everything, a maroon colored curtains, and bedspread. The room across from it was identical except it was a deep blue.
Then Carly went back into the hallway. "Huh, that's funny."
"What's funny?"
"Well. There's supposed to be a door here." Carly said, pointing to the wall in front of her covered in yellow and green pinstripe wallpaper. "Hold this for a minute." Carly said, handing Erica the plans.
She felt along the wall until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out a pocked knife out of her pocket. She ran the knife along the wall in a long rectangle pattern and was the size of two doors. Carly put the knife away and pulled on the wallpaper at the top right edge.
Erica gasped at what was revealed a set of double doors.
Carly tried the doorknob, but it was locked, "Do you have the skeleton key to the house doors?"
Erica nodded, then handed Carly the key.
Carly slowly turned the key, and heard a 'click'. She pulled out the key, then slowly turned the doorknobs and opened the doors . . . .
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Please reply! Questions, comments, requests, or just tell me what ya think! And yes, I know, that was a lousy cliffhanger, but you try and come up with something after having been up for over 24 hours!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
bIChapter 14 Spoilers: /b
Carly and Erica find out what's in the room
Courtney and Frank get married
Eve goes into labor
Lucky has a question for Emily /I
I~ Note Jarred has an Australian accent, he was raised by his Australian Uncle and Aunt. Even though he grew up in Florida, he was mostly kept at home. He didn't interact much with other children, there by learning to speak by example with only Australian accents surrounding him. That's why he has one, and his sentence structure will sound different than if he had been raised by Carly. ~/I
I~ I deeply apologize for how long you have had to wait for this chapter. I started my summer vacation, and I didn't work as diligently as I used to during the school year. I am very sorry, and I hope that you will forgive me, and keep reading. I promise to work harder to keep the chapters from coming so far apart. ~/I
Prevailing Over All
By Clover
Chapter 13
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Alexis and Carly called in "the troops" as they were know, for breaking news like this. Emily, Lucky, Ned, Jerry, Laura, and Ana respectively. It was a large group, but a perfect combination for finding the right way to break all the news. They were all at Lukes within an hour.
It took four hours, and a lot of arguments, but they'd finally come to an agreement, there was no easy way to tell your mother the truth.
Carly sighed, "Thanks for all your help guys. I did get some great pointers on how to tell the truth to anyone else I'd ever need to, but when dealing with mothers, I guess there is no easy way to do it." She stood up and put on her apron because her shift was about to start.
"Now, I want to see you all at Nurses Ball tryouts tomorrow, with idea's for skits, oh, and Ned, Lucky, I need to speak to you about a special act I want you to do for me. The rest of you can go, but be at the tryouts, we only got a little more than two months to get everything perfect. Laura, thanks for agreeing to be co-hostess." Carly told them, then went behind the bar.
The group is marveled at her nature, then all leave. Except for the two men Carly asked to stay. They looked at each other, then went to the bar.
"Carly, what do you want us to do at the Nurses Ball?" Lucky asked, getting right to the point.
"Well, first of all if I can get everyone I want, it will be; you two, the Scanlons, Sly, Nikolas, Taggert, Courtney, V, Emily, Lark, Felicia, Lois and I. I figured, if I'm going to carry on the tradition of the hostess ending up in her underwear, I'm not going to do it alone."
"What are you saying?" Ned questioned getting wary.
"Boys, times they are a changing, and so is the Nurses Ball . . ." Then she leaned in and gave them the details.
You could hear Ned's laughter on the other side of the room.
b** 20 minutes later **/b
Ned and Lucky were leaving Lukes.
"I can't believe she talked us into that." Ned moaned as they walk out the door.
They looked back once and saw Carly watching them leave, with a triumphant grin on her face. Then they walked out of the bar, their heads hung low in defeat
During Carly's break she'd made the multiple phone calls to the parties of whom she wished to involve. Thank fully, everyone agreed.
She came out from Luke's office in a good mood.
She didn't even frown when she saw Robin at the bar.
"Hey Robin! How are you doing today?" Carly greeted brightly.
"What is wrong with you?" Robin asked sneering.
Carly's good mood disappeared, "I was just trying to be nice. Sorry for bothering you."
Then Carly stalked off to a table to get some businessman's order.
~*~
b** Three hours later **
** The Brownstone **/b
Carly took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.
Bobbie opened it and smiled, "Carly! What are you doing here?"
"Bobbie, we need to talk." Carly told her seriously.
Bobbie's smile disappeared and she let Carly in. They went into the living room and sat down.
Carly looked down at her hands, "Bobbie, it's about my father. My biological father."
"What about him, I can't tell you anything, I don't even know who he is."
"You see, that's just it, I don't need you to tell me anything about him. He's been helping raise me since I was born, I used to live with him for two weeks every other month. And the thing is, he's in town, and he's moving here with his wife."
Bobbie looked at her, stunned, "You know who he is? You've known him your entire life?" Bobbie repeated carefully.
"Yes. His name is Demitri Marick, he's a Hungarian count."
"He's a Hungarian count." Bobbie echoed.
"Yes, and then there's the matter of his wife."
Bobbie shook her head, as if to clear it, "Who's his wife?"
"Have you ever heard of Erica Kane?"
"The famous model?"
"That's her. She is the nicest person you've ever met, and Erica and Papa love each other so much"
Bobbie stood abruptly and started pacing, "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"There was never a right time to do so. I mean, how was I supposed to tell you, Mama, you know the John you had sex with once when you were a hooker and got you pregnant, well I've known him my entire life and he's rich, royalty, and he's married to a famous model. Yeah, there was really an appropriate time to tell you that." Carly said sarcastically standing up too.
"I'm sure you could have come up with some time before now if you had really thought about it!"
"You know what?! FINE! I came here, trying to be nice, I tried to break it to you gently and you are angry with ME for not telling you sooner! I wonder why!" Carly screamed. Then ran out of the Brownstone slamming the door behind her. Billy barely has enough time to get into the front of the limo before Carly orders Johnny to drive home.
b** 20 minutes later **/b
Carly slammed the door behind her to find the boys asleep, and Jason not home. She really needed to talk to her best friend, so she decided to wait up for him.
Carly curled up on the couch and grabbed a magazine off the coffee table and flipped through it.
~*~
b** The cottage ** /b
Sonny summed up his courage, and knocked on the door.
The door opened a few seconds later.
Ana was surprised to see him there, "Papa, I was not expecting you."
"I know, can I come in?" Sonny asked.
"Of course, please." Ana exclaimed, ushering him inside.
Both were totally silent for a few awkward moments.
Then Sonny spoke, "Um, I know that we haven't really had the chance to really talk, and I think that it's really important that we do."
"You are right, we really should talk about what has happened. And about, things."
"First of all, how are things with you and Nikolas?"
"Great. As you know we live together now, and L&B offered me a contract to sing for them. I told them that I would think about it. That woman who seems to be in charge is, zealous."
Sonny laughed, "You mean Lois, I've known her since I was a kid. We grew up together. Her husband Ned is the down to earth one."
"He's the one who used to be Eddie Maine right? My mother secretly loved Eddie Maine."
"She did? Natalia didn't seem like the type to like that sort of music." Sonny said amused.
"I know, it was a secret that she and I had. My Grandfather Alexander hates music like that. He had my mother and I well taught in the classical music's, although he did let us listen to traditional music as well sometimes."
Sonny felt a little guilty, even though he knew that there was no way to prevent what had happened, "Did you have a nice childhood?"
"Yes. It was very nice, the best schools or tutors, all the toys I ever wanted. I had my mother, I had my Grandfather, and I traveled the world. Sure the bodyguards put a damper on dates. But I guess that it would have been the same no matter what had happened." Ana finished quietly.
"Yeah, I guess it would have. So, you were happy?"
"I guess, I mean, I always wished for a father, and never understood why mother used to tell me that was impossible, but I understood when mother explained why. Of course that was right before she passed away, but that was how it had to be."
"Yeah, I guess so." Sonny looked at his watch, "Wow, it's late. I'd better get going."
Ana looked up at the grandfather clock by the landing, "Oh my, Nikolas will be home soon." Both stood up.
Sonny walked to the door and opened it, he turned around briefly, "If you ever need anything, just call."
"I will." Ana promised.
Sonny nodded his head, then quietly closed the door behind him. He slowly walked towards the limo, thinking about his teenage daughter, who was so old. It made him feel so, inexplicable.
~*~
b** Around midnight **/b
Jason quietly came inside, he'd been out riding all night, trying to clear his head.
He didn't even see Carly at first. He went over to the couch to sit down and thing some more, and found Carly there asleep. Jason didn't have the heart to wake her up, so he gently picked her up and carried her upstairs.
Jason laid her onto his bed and carefully pulled back the covers. He removed her shoes. She stirred, "Jase?"
"Yeah."
"What time is it?" Carly yawned.
"Late. Very late. You fell asleep on the couch."
"Oh." Carly sat up a bit, "Could you hand me my nightgown?"
"Um . . . " Jason looked around, and finally located the short, black nightie, "Here it is."
"Thanks, stay a minute, will you?" Carly took the scrap of satin and went behind a changing screen she had in her room. She removed her clothes and put it on.
Jason could see the outline of her body through the screen, and found the sight very alluring. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had complete control of himself when Carly reappeared and sat back down on her bed.
"Johnny said that you looked mad when you came here. What happened?" Jason asked concerned, sitting down beside her.
"I talked to Bobbie today." Carly told him, leaning against his shoulder, "I told her about my father. I got so mad at her reaction to that that I forgot to tell her about us. I don't even want to think about how she's going to react when she finds out about that."
"How badly did she take the news?"
"She yelled at me for not telling her sooner." Carly sighed, "It's not that I didn't want tell her sooner, well actually it is. I didn't really have a reason to tell her, what purpose would it have served? Bobbie was lucky that I even told her that he was in town and that he was moving here with Erica. I didn't have to, I was worried how she would feel about having him living here, that's why I told her. Then she got mad at me. I yelled at her, then ran out of the house and came here."
Jason nodded his head, understanding that she just needed a sounding board, not someone to dispense advice. Carly was his best friend, and he knew that she lashed out when she was confused, hurt, or angry. It wasn't the right time to say anything, so he just wrapped his arms around her and gave her the comfort she needed.
~*~
b** The next day, across town **/b
Erica looked around her new home. It was beautiful. Designed in the 1850's it had beautiful dark wood everywhere, and lots of big windows. The doors were large solid-oak, and the ceilings were high. She had big plans for this place, but she needed an interior designer, and she knew just who to call.
Erica whipped out her cell phone and dialed the number she knew by heart.
The person on the other end answered on the second ring, "Hello?"
"Honey its Erica! Guess what? I'm in Port Charles right now, and I just bought a house."
"You are? You did?! That's great!"
"I was wondering if I could hire you to decorate. It already has most of it's original furniture but I want to re-do some of the stuff."
"Really? You want me too do it? Of course I will, I won't even charge you."
"Oh, I can't take advantage of you like that."
"I insist. Besides, you're the only one in my family I wouldn't charge there is no way that I would ever make you pay. Plus I love doing it."
"Well, alright. How soon can you be here?"
"I can be there in 15 minutes, just give me the address." The woman responded.
Erica gave the address then hung up smiling.
b** 15 minutes later **/b
Erica looked out the window and saw a limo pulling up. She was a bit surprised about the limo and with the bodyguards.
Erica hurried to the door and opened it; "Oh I missed you!" She carefully pulled Carly into a hug, being careful not to squish Michael in the process.
"I missed you too Erica, why didn't you and Papa come sooner for a visit. I hope you don't mind, but I brought the boys." Carly apologized, hoisting Michael up higher with one arm, and leading Jarred in with the other.
Adam followed close behind, and closed the door.
"Of course not! I have always wanted to meet Michael. And I have so missed Jarred. How are you Jarred?"
"Great, Nana Erica!" Jarred proclaimed in his Australian accent, then gave Erica a big hug with his tiny arms.
"That's wonderful!" Erica exclaimed, then she straightened up and led Jarred into one of the large rooms. "So I hear that you went on a little adventure."
"Yeah, I came all the way to Port Charles, all by me self. Mummy was real surprised. And then I met my Dad, and the rest of my family. And my Uncle Jerry is married to my Grandma Bubbie, and my Uncle Lucas is nine, so he's the coolest. My cousin Lucky is really cool too and he has a girlfriend named Emily, she's a model like you are. They have a band together and are famous too! Lucky sometimes watches me during the day at his apartment, it's really cool, and he and Emily designed it.
Sonny's cool too, he has bodyguards, and Mummy spends the night with him sometimes, but always tucks me and Michael in first, and she's there when I wake up most of the time, but if she's not her friend Jason is. Jason is Michael's dad, and Jason's Emily's brother. Michael's named after Sonny, cause Sonny's real name is Michael, and he's Jason's best friend. Uncle Luke is weird though, he doesn't like my Dad and Uncle Jerry much, and he smokes cigars all the time. Lucky has a sister, her name is Lulu, and she's six so we're going to go to school together next year. This town is so cool. It even has an island called Spoon Island with a really big house on it that has a name, it is called Wyndemere. Uncle Luke calls the island Spook Island. He says that a real vampire lives there called Count Vlad, but pretends to be man named Stefan Cassadine. Lucky says that he's not really a vampire thought, and that he's Lucky's brother Nikolas's Uncle."
Carly shook her head, her son seemed to know everything about the families, even the fact that she'd spent a few nights at Sonny's, which was something, she didn't think he even knew. She also made a mental note to cut down on the visits to Luke. And she also could tell that 'cool' was Jarred's new favorite word.
Carly followed her stepmother and other son into the living room, Michael in one arm, the diaper bag and her design stuff in the other.
Carly got the boys situated on the floor with things to do, then went to Erica.
"So, what did you want done here?"
"Well, I don't know yet, I haven't seen the whole house yet."
"I can do that. I've always wanted to decorate a house with nothing already planned. Now lets take a survey of the house." Carly informed Erica, then went and put Michael in a playpen one of the guards had put on the ground. She turned to Jarred, "Jay, watch your brother, and stay in this room. Mommy will be back in a few minutes, we have to look around the house."
She turned to the guard who's at the door, "Adam, will you make sure the boys are safe. We shouldn't be to long, and Jarred trusts you."
"Of course Carly, Jarred a sweet kid and Michael's never any trouble." Adam agreed, calling her that because she had insisted.
"Thanks." Carly turned to Erica, "Do you have a floor plan of the house?"
"Yes, it's over here." She picked up a stack of five papers, "Here they are. You can write on these too, they're just copies. The top one's the attic, then the third floor, the second floor, the main floor, then the basement/wine cellar."
"Good." Carly looked over the plans, then flipped over to the room they were in. "Well, I think this was the drawing room, behind us is the dinning room, then there's the kitchen behind that. The one on the other side of the staircase was the living room, then the library, and a study behind there. Underneath the stairs was storage area. And the stairs to the basement"
They went in the dinning room.
"I can't believe that most of the furniture is the stuff that was in the house during the 1860's. I can't believe it withstood time so well."
"Well the previous owners said that the house had been in the family for generations and the will had said that everything had to stay the same, so all they did was about 20 year ago they had everything restored to it's original condition." Erica explained as they looked into the library, "However, apparently, the last member of the family, the man I bought it from, accidentally forgot to pay his taxes since 1943, and he had to file for bankruptcy. He sold the house, lock, stock, and barrel at a fraction of the retail value, so he could escape the country."
"Wow, that's quite a story. Besides, however you got it, this place is amazing. I have always wanted to see a house like this. I mean, I feel as though I stepped back into the past."
"I know, isn't it great?"
"Yes it is. I am going to be spending a lot of time here." Carly exclaimed looking into the living room.
Carly walked out of the room, then they go up the stairs. "Alright, up here to the right, was the master bedroom on the end, it's very large, and you have major closet space. The room next to it on the left was converted into a bathroom, and down the other way is other bedrooms." They walk down the hall, and they see only two doors.
They go into the room on the left first. It had white walls, but dark wood on everything, a maroon colored curtains, and bedspread. The room across from it was identical except it was a deep blue.
Then Carly went back into the hallway. "Huh, that's funny."
"What's funny?"
"Well. There's supposed to be a door here." Carly said, pointing to the wall in front of her covered in yellow and green pinstripe wallpaper. "Hold this for a minute." Carly said, handing Erica the plans.
She felt along the wall until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out a pocked knife out of her pocket. She ran the knife along the wall in a long rectangle pattern and was the size of two doors. Carly put the knife away and pulled on the wallpaper at the top right edge.
Erica gasped at what was revealed a set of double doors.
Carly tried the doorknob, but it was locked, "Do you have the skeleton key to the house doors?"
Erica nodded, then handed Carly the key.
Carly slowly turned the key, and heard a 'click'. She pulled out the key, then slowly turned the doorknobs and opened the doors . . . .
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Please reply! Questions, comments, requests, or just tell me what ya think! And yes, I know, that was a lousy cliffhanger, but you try and come up with something after having been up for over 24 hours!
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bIChapter 14 Spoilers: /b
Carly and Erica find out what's in the room
Courtney and Frank get married
Eve goes into labor
Lucky has a question for Emily /I