Disclaimer: The characters of GH, as well as General Hospital itself, don't belong to me.
Author's Note: Wow, this story has been keeping me up at night, I've been struggling with this update, but I think I've finally got it all worked out. Thank you everyone who has read and reviewed, hopefully, you'll enjoy this chapter.
"Mom?" Jack put his hand on Courtney's arm. "What is it? Are you okay?"
"This can't be," she murmured. She lifted her eyes from the file and looked at Jack. "This does makes things a little more difficult," she admitted quietly. She rocked back on her heels and closed the file. "You said Jason was talking to you about business?"
Jack nodded. "Uncle Sonny too."
"What can you tell me about Roberto Giancamo?"
Jack thought for a moment, and again, Courtney was blown away by how much he reminded her of Jason. His mannerisms were nearly identical to his father's, down to the way his eyes were squinted, and his jaw set tightly.
"Dad and Uncle Sonny had a fight about him a few weeks before the explosion," he said, breaking Courtney out of her trance.
"What about?"
"Dad didn't trust him. I don't know what the fight was about but Uncle Sonny kept saying 'it wasn't him' and dad thought it was. But I don't know what it was that Dad thought he did."
Courtney nodded, her mind racing a million miles a minute. She flipped the file open again and began scanning the pages. After a few moments she realized that Jack was still staring at her. "It's late," she said absentmindedly. "You should get to bed."
"Mom, what does that say?"
She sighed. "Jack, I just got thrown into this myself, I just found out you're way deeper involved then I ever imagined possible and I'm not entirely comfortable in discussing this with you." Jack began to protest and she held up her hand and continued talking. "However, I do know that as much as I don't like it, you and Michael are going to be able to help us. I just need to talk to Carly first, deal?"
"Deal." Jack leaned over and gave her a hug. "You should get some sleep too."
"I will I'm just going to hang out here for a little bit." Courtney smiled. "Goodnight, I love you."
"Love you too. Night."
Courtney looked back down at the file in her hands. "What are we getting ourselves into?" she whispered.
One thing was for sure, if Jason's suspicions turned out to be correct, she and Carly were in a lot more trouble than either had ever imagined.
"You're kidding right?" Carly asked. It was the next morning and the two women were having coffee in Courtney's office at the hospital before Carly went back into Michael's room. "Roberto Giancamo killed his own wife?"
Courtney shrugged and handed the file to Carly. "That's what Jason seemed to think."
"Why? Why would he do that?"
"What better way to gain control of the business than commit a crime, then set up other families as the targeted suspects?" Courtney guessed.
"And then once everyone is fighting with each other, trying to prove their innocence, he had easy access to property dealings and shipments," Carly realized.
"Because who would question the grief-stricken family of the one that was killed?" Courtney finished. "I mean, take us for example. We were never questioned as suspects."
"I guess it does make sense," Carly mused. "But why didn't Sonny agree with Jason?"
"Sonny thought very highly of Giancamo, you said that yourself. Maybe he just didn't believe that he was capable of killing his own family."
"That bastard," Carly said softly. "Sonny and Jason must have found proof that it was him, confronted him, and that's why they're dead. They uncovered his lies."
"We don't know that yet," Courtney argued.
"Please. They found out the truth, and he eliminated them as threats." Carly's eyes darkened angrily. "Can you believe the nerve of that man? Coming into my home, expressing his deepest sympathies and condolences, offering us all the help we would need in finding out who was responsible for this? I swear to God, I'm going to—"
"Carly stop. This is way beyond us now," Courtney said. "Don't you see, we can take all of this to the police and they can worry about it. They are definitely more equipped to handle this than we are."
"Sorry Court. This is our fight. I'm not trusting the PCPD to get us justice." Her eyes glittered as she began pacing. "Of course, Giancamo was nowhere near the warehouse that night, I'm sure he wasn't even in the United States, which means he was working with someone else. But who?" Her eyes lit up. "One of the other families of course. All he would have had to do was promise them the Port Charles waterfront territories. Any one of them would have jumped at the chance to get rid of Sonny."
"Carly, if we're right, this is way too dangerous for us!" Courtney argued. "And it's not just us anymore, Michael and Jack are involved too, and I don't know about you, but I really didn't like asking Jack to tell me what he knew last night. Honestly, I'm afraid to know what he and Michael know."
Carly softened a bit. "Michael wouldn't even talk about it last night," she admitted. "I told him I knew that they were getting involved and all he said was he was sorry he didn't tell me but Sonny told him not to."
"Well, its understandable that he didn't want to talk about it," Courtney said.
"Maybe, but I think he's planning something. I think he'll try and do this himself."
"Or, he'll team up with Jack. Don't you see Carly? This is why we can't do this! We have to go to the police."
"Absolutely not," Carly said firmly. "Courtney, you know I'm right, you're just letting your emotions get in the way."
She sighed. "I know, I know. But what are we going to do? We can't let Giancamo know we suspect him. And I don't know how well I'd be able to lie to him."
"We'll try and stay away from him for awhile." Carly chewed on her lower lip. "I'll get Danny and Aidan to do some digging around, maybe they know something." She was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Come in," Courtney called, slipping the file into her desk drawer.
Jax poked his head in. "Ah, good, you're not busy," he said. "Good morning ladies."
Carly shot a look at Courtney. "Jax. Courtney didn't tell me you were back in town."
"Well I am," Jax said, smiling good-naturedly. "I heard Michael woke up last night, you must be very relieved."
"We all are," Courtney said.
"Carly, Brenda will be in town later this afternoon, she asked me to ask you if she would be able to stop by to see you and Michael."
"That's very nice of her," Carly said. While over the years Brenda and Jax and Jason and Courtney had become friendly, Carly was still somewhat wary of the woman. "I think Michael would like to see her," she added.
"Wonderful. I'll let her know."
"Speaking of Michael, I should get back to his room. I'm not going into the Cellar today, meet me for lunch?" Carly asked and Courtney nodded.
"Sure, I'll meet you in Michael's room. Give him a hug for me." She shut the door behind Carly and faced Jax. "Well, what do I owe this early morning surprise to?"
"Well, the Nurses Ball is coming up soon and I thought maybe since I'm in town, it would be a good time to start discussing benefactors and some of the more pressing details."
"I forgot all about that," Courtney said, looking at her calendar. Sure enough, the Ball was less than three months away. She looked at her planner. "I don't have anything else going on this morning that needs immediate attention, so let's start planning," she said, handing Jax a cup of coffee.
"Hey, how are you feeling today?" Carly asked, opening the door of Michael's room.
Michael grinned. "If I say I'm feeling really good can I go home?"
"You just woke up, I don't think you'll be coming home for a few days," she said, sitting down next to him. "Grandpa Mike said he'd be by to see you sometime today."
"Yeah, he called a little while ago. I asked him to bring me some fries from the diner."
Carly shook her head. "Good thing your grandparents are heads of the hospital, you can get away with this stuff." She paused. "Michael, I need to ask you something about your dad," she said hesitantly.
"What?"
"Did he ever say anything about a man named Roberto Giancamo?"
"He's from Italy, he runs a few casinos in New York City, right?"
"Right. Did you ever hear Jason and Sonny talking about him?"
"All the time," Michael said. "Dad and Uncle Jason were working with him, or for him, I'm not really sure. I don't know what about, Dad wouldn't tell me."
"Did they ever fight about him?"
"The last few weeks yeah, they fought all the time." Michael looked at his mother, his own dark eyes suspicious. "Do you know Mr. Giancamo? Why are you asking about him?"
"I'm just curious," Carly said, not looking him in the eye. "He's been very helpful to me and Courtney this last week."
"Helpful? With what?" Michael sat up a little straighter. "Mom, have you and Aunt Courtney met with any of the families?"
"We met with all of them, actually. Last night. There was a meeting called."
"Why did you go? Damn it Mom! Why didn't you send Jack?"
"Send Jack? I'm sorry Michael, Courtney and I weren't even aware that you two knew anything until last night. Send Jack? What? Are Courtney and I not competent enough to handle ourselves with a bunch of thugs?"
Michael sighed as Carly's voice became more and more high-pitched and her gestures more animated. He should have known better than to say anything. Now her rambling was gaining momentum and she was lecturing him on how the business was dangerous and illegal and something she never wanted him to be a part of and she didn't understand why he found it so fascinating and blah blah blah, he just sat there, looking at her and nodding occasionally.
"I'm sorry Mom," he said contritely, when she paused to breathe. "You're absolutely right, you and Aunt Courtney are definitely capable of handling yourselves in a meeting with the families, I just never dreamed you would even think to go."
"And I never dreamed you wanted to be just like your father!"
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Yes!" Carly sighed. "I don't know. I don't like the idea of you being involved. Jack either."
"But we are, Mom," he pointed out. "There's nothing you can do about that now but accept it."
"That doesn't mean I have to like it," Carly said stubbornly.
Michael looked at her with an amused expression. "You're not really mad at me," he said. "You can't be. I'm your favorite son, remember?"
"Michael, this is serious!" she protested, trying to keep the smile from creeping onto her lips.
"I know, I know, I'm just saying, I'm your favorite. Don't forget that." He sighed. "So are you going to tell me what happened at the meeting? And more importantly, why do you want to know about Mr. Giancamo?"
Before she knew it, Carly found herself halfway explaining her plan to Michael. While she left out most of the specific details, she outlined that, with the help of Courtney and Danny and Aidan, she was going to try and figure out who was behind the explosion.
And as much as she didn't like hearing it, she knew Michael was going to be a very important part of her scheme.
