Sweetie'sengagedtoherman- Forgive me for not doing the capital and lower cases like you… anyway, thank you for the review, I always appreciate feedback. People are demanding the Journey and I feel bad for not being able to meet the demand with my supply. There is a Journey section that has been written, but it won't be up for a few days.
Angle445- As stated above… Journey is around, but won't be 'seen' for a few days. Can't have things going out of order. However, if I can find reasons, I will make the effort to place Journey into the story more, since you people seem to love them so much. I love them, too… just didn't think I would have such a high demand for them.
Story-
Morgan Household-
Courtney was relaxing on the sofa. Her life always seemed to be in some sort of upheaval, all she wanted was a few moments to herself where she could just take a second and breathe. They were few and far between, but they did exist, and because they existed she was always thankful when they came.
Her eyes opened and she groaned when she heard the sound of the door being knocked on. Waiting a moment to see if the person would go away she forced herself to her feet when the knocking persisted. She needed to get one of those 'do not distrub' signs that they had at the hotels.
More knocking followed, whoever was at the other end of the door really wanted to get her attention. "I'm coming, I'm coming!"
Carly waited at the door for her best friend. Normally she would have just opened the door and walked in, but she was feeling oddly traditional. Sometimes she wondered if she was breaking up passionate moments between Courtney and Jason. It seemed to happen from time to time and Carly truly regretted it when it did. She loved them both so much, she wanted them to be happy. It just seemed that they could never be happy because one or both of them always ended up being involved in whatever problem she or Sonny or one of the kids' was going through. It wasn't fair. Carly wanted to make up for it.
"What?" Courtney's voice was a low growl, but she looked away when she saw it was Carly. Her dear friend, she could never be mad at Carly. "Sorry…"
Carly looked past Courtney's shoulder to see if there was someone, anyone, in the room with her. There wasn't. Carly didn't hear someone walking down from the stairs, so it probably meant that Courtney was alone. "If you need me to come back later…"
"No, it's all right," Courtney held the door open. "You know that I'm always here for you."
"Yeah…" Carly walked inside. "That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about."
"What do you mean?"
"You're great to me, you know that?" She spoke once more. "You and Jason are the best best friends that I could have ever asked for, and I don't deserve either of you in my life…"
"Carly…" Courtney didn't like it when Carly got on a self-pity fest, it usually meant that she had done something wrong. With Carly, when something went wrong something went very wrong. "You know that's not true. We help you because we love you."
"That's besides the point…"
"No," Courtney interrupted, "that is the point. There are times when I don't agree with what you're trying to do, but I stand by you because I know that deep down your reasons are probably good."
"I just want to do something for the two of you for once…"
"You don't need…"
"I know I don't need to, Courtney," Carly grabbed her best friend's hand and led her to the couch. "I know that the two of you never expect anything from me or Sonny or any of the people who you help… but you help everyone so much that I feel it's about time I did something to repay the favor, and believe me… of anyone in Port Charles I owe you both the most."
"Look… I appreciate the gesture, and I'm sure Jason would, too. But you know how much he hates it when people do stuff with his time that he doesn't know about… I don't want him to be angry with me, or with you, because of something that we did."
"Jason won't mind…"
"That's what Damian thought…"
"What are you talking about?"
"You didn't know," Courtney should have known better. Why would those two give each other a heart-to-heart confession? They were more likely to go after each other's hearts, and not in the love sense.
"I noticed that Damian was acting a little… distant towards Jason, more than usual… but I didn't pay much attention. Is everything okay?"
"It's fine… just… Damian thought he could help Jason and the Quartermaine's at the same time…"
Carly put her hand over her mouth. She had an idea of what was going on, "He tried to get them together, didn't he?"
"He got them together… but Jason only stayed because it was Christmas, and because he knew that Lila would have wanted him there." Courtney brushed some hair off her shoulder… she had no right to talk about what had happened, but she had already begun to tell the details, no sense in stopping, "Jason really appreciated what Damian tried to do… but you know Jason, he hates it when people try to run his life."
"He has good reason." Carly was well aware of Jason's life before he changed his name. He was little more than puppet animated by the strings pulled by every single member of that family, always trying to do the one thing that would please them the most. Carly was glad that he managed to get out of that life. She was glad that she managed to pull Michael away from that family before it was too late.
"So… right now isn't exactly the best time to spring plans on Jason when he doesn't have any input in what happens…"
"I'm telling you that he'll love this plan, Courtney."
"I don't want to be the one to take the blame."
"Then let me!" Carly was being highly demanding. "You people always take the blame from me, even when I deserve it all… come on… can you at least listen to my idea?"
"Sometimes your ideas are best kept to yourself…"
"Now you're just being mean."
"Or honest."
"They seem to go together at times, don't they?" Carly smirked. "Tonight is New Years Eve… you don't have anything planned, do you?"
"Jason's not big on celebration…"
"It's only for a few hours, I think he can manage." Carly looked at the tree which was still in the room. "He seems to have gotten into the holiday spirit as of late… look, I know that you worry about me when I have ideas, but this one is harmless. We're not going out tonight because we're still worried about Morgan, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun…"
"What kind of fun?"
"I can have Max and some of the other guards move some of the furniture out of the way in the living room and we can play music. Don't you see?" There was the glint in Carly's eye that she got when she planned something that was lavish. "We can have our own private dinner party at my place. It'll be like when we were little… playing dress up. We'll wear our fancy clothes, have good food… champagne. Then we can bring in the New Year together… as a family."
"How can I help?"
"You don't help," Carly pressed on Courtney's shoulders, "you just bring yourself and your husband over later tonight… do you understand me? You do not do anything. Don't lift a finger… just pick something nice to wear and come. If you want to watch the decoration process I can't stop you, but if I so much as see you lift a single finger to do something other than maybe take a drink of water you'll be hearing from me…"
"Is Carly being a dictator… again…"
The woman in question looked up the stairs. "Stay out of this, junior!"
"Hey, I resent that comment! I am Dillon Quartermaine the first!"
"Yeah, and if you get in my way I'm going to make sure that you don't have the chance to make a Dillon Quartermaine the second!"
"But I wanted to film the mob party!" Dillon had heard the tail end of the discussion. "It would be great for my movie…"
"Nobody under drinking age allowed," Carly stuck her tongue out. It was good that she could let herself go around Dillon. She was resentful of the idea at first, perhaps even more than Jason, but she also embraced Dillon as a part of the life that happened around the penthouse.
"Michael's going to be there…"
"Michael is going to stay in his room. This is an adult's only party."
"Are you telling me that I'm not an adult?"
"You can try to prove me wrong when you get a hairstyle that doesn't make you look like a superhero out of a comic book!"
"You guys," Courtney was trying to hold back the laughter that came from their banter. "I haven't even said I was going to go with the idea yet!"
"You know you want to, Courtney," Dillon kept walking down the stairs. "I've seen you when you're dressed up in a fancy dress… the sequin gown, the sparkles, you thrive in situations like that. Even the queen of segregation…"
"Don't call me that!"
"Then don't age discriminate," Dillon quipped. "It doesn't matter anyway, Carly… I was just saying that I wanted to go. I don't want to be at your stupid party!"
"Liar!"
"You two are giving me a headache!"
"I have a girlfriend," Dillon continued, partially ignoring Courtney because he was having fun battling it out with Carly. "We're going to do something special tonight…"
"Oh really?"
"Yeah!"
Carly knew that he was lying. Dillon might have been a Quartermaine, but unlike most of the Quartermaine's he was a horrible liar. The price of trying to be an honest and good kid, which he was… but being honest and good had more than a few downsides to it. "Why don't you tell me what you have planned, then."
"We're going to watch a movie…"
"You spend hours on end watching movies, Dillon," Carly shook her head. "How is that special?"
"First you discriminate against me because I'm still too young to have gray hair and now you crush my dreams!" His lip quivered slightly, "You're a very bad lady!"
"I do not have gray hair!"
"Because you color it…"
Courtney rolled her eyes, wondering if the two of them even knew she was in the room any longer. Standing once more, she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. She was going to need some aspirin.